Bryan Allen

Bryan grew up in Small town, Michigan and started photography at age 11. After graduating high school, he and his friends traveled to Colorado to see Rocky Mountain National Park (and the Coors brewery.) Arriving at the park prior to opening, Bryan was awestruck at sunrise, as the park ranger opened the gate and Bryan saw his first mountain illuminating like a daytime aurora. This scene changed his life forever. Two weeks later, he was back in Michigan, working at the grocery store, filling the produce shelves (seemed like all lemons at that point) while daydreaming of those forever embedded mountain scenes and sitting by the clear cool crystal waters.

At 21, Bryan moved west because of the mountains but ended up in Venice Beach, CA. He’d never heard of Venice – just stumbled across cheap rent and a long bout of culture shock and short bouts of consciousness. This is where his photography changed, by seeing the most intriguing group of people this side of nowhere with their own renditions of reality.

Continuing his studies in photography was not enough, he found the real fun was street photography at that hypnotizing Venice Beach boardwalk, and adventures in the National Parks –(his goal is to see all the Ntl. Parks.) He learned how photography can bring out emotions, be it landscape, street photography, or a picture of a greasy hamburger smothered in cholesterol with a side of Lipator. Bryan says that photography is like an addiction: once you break out the camera (and even when it’s put away) everything you see becomes an image…you come to notice the color of the light, the long shadows, a baby’s smile or a broken umbrella on a rainy day. Most of Bryan’s photography is done with a telephoto lens as he like the prospective it brings out, or in, so to speak. 

Through Bryan’s 52 year career in photography, he’s been published in Westways, Travel and Leisure, The National Hockey League, Zamboni Inc., Real Estate Magazines, Ice Skating Magazines, The Jay Leno Show, brochures, food ads and local newspapers. He finds it interesting that the modern camera has a bigger menu than the Cottage Restaurant’s, but as Julius Shulman said, “The camera is the least important element in photography.” 

It’s said that if one does what they love they’ll never work a day in their life… He would love for you to stop by and see his work at the Mountain Arts Gallery in Lake Arrowhead Village, CA and see his work and perhaps buy yourself something real nice..

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