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Learn more about Nubar Alexanian's work at his Website: www.nubar.com. You can also be a part of his discussion on photo and radio journalism at Transom.org.

Nubar Alexanian Photo Gallery
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Cusco Woman & Child - This is a good example of how much better photography is at metaphor than narrative - it's much more poetic. It always surprises writers whom I work on assignment with, that photographers aren't necessarily tied to the facts on a story to describe something honestly. Here we have a woman and girl walking through the main square in Cusco. I was sitting outside a restaurant drinking coffee when I spotted them. I was really taken by them and jumped to my feet, ran to catch up with them and as I was crossing in front of them, I prefocused my camera and shot three frames. When I saw the print, I understood what compelled me.

After spending many years photographing in Peru, I realized that the Andean people have an identity which has been on hold, perhaps since the Spanish came to their country. In this image, the woman and girl don't just look lost... they look centuries lost. Now, they might not be lost at all. But I needed to say this with a picture and this image does it. Is it true about them? In that moment, probably not. But overall, it's true about their people.

Red Sneakers - I saw these red sneakers in New York City in front of this cigar shop and waited for almost half an hour to find something interesting to work in with them. I shot all kinds of people coming and going. I probably shot three rolls of film, when this truck pulled up right where I was standing and this beautiful woman with beautiful long legs jumped out of the truck and crossed into my frame. Sometimes incredible things happen.

Blanche Moyse - Here it looks like she's expressing the music that's on the page in front of her. What's really happening is she's thanking someone who just said something nice to her. The truth in this image, however, lies in the fact that it expresses my experience of her... that she could be emoting about the music on the page in front of her... that's who she is.

Wynton Cover Image - Whenever I work on a book, as in the case with my music book, I visit editors in New York to show them what I'm doing with the hope that they might assign me to photograph some of the musicians on my list for my book. Life Magazine assigned quite a few, which is how I met Wynton Marsalis. Here, I was on assignment for Life with Wynton at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. He and I hit it off pretty well. Before he took the stage, I asked if he would mind if I were on stage with the band to shoot from closer proximity. He said I could do what I wanted.

So there I was, moving around the stage with all the other press photographers shooting from in front of the stage from the press section. Everyone was pretty pissed of about it, but I didn't feel like I was getting anything. So I climbed down off the stage into the press section where I met a friend. He knew I was on assignment and I told him I needed a Nikon with a 200mm lens. He pulled one out of his bag, took the film out. I put my film in, shot the roll and came up with this image. This ended up on the cover of the book and became a signature image for Wynton.

Tuna Prep - A publisher called me two years ago. He was doing a calendar on the North Shore and heard that I was the photographer who would have a great picture of Gloucester. One thing led to another and he decided to publish a calendar of my own work on Gloucester for the Millennium. He even gave me a healthy advance against royalties to prove his sincerity. All was going well and the calendar was about to go to press, when he expressed reservations about the picture of the Tuna being iced down. His daughter and wife were queasy about that image. Things became somewhat disagreeable. He suggested that he could back out of the project all together, allowing me to keep the advance as a contribution to the Gloucester project as a whole, which, to my surprise, is exactly what he did.

But I became attached to this project and wanted to see it through. So I ran around Gloucester to various organizations and businesses to see if I could pre-sell enough calendars to pay for the printing costs. I accomplished this in two weeks and published the calendar under the name of Walker Creek Press (I live on Walker Creek and we have Walker Creek Furniture, Walker Creek Garden Design,... We definitely needed a press). I printed 6,000 calendars, making a healthy profit to subsidize the ongoing work of documenting my home town. More importantly, people were living with my work on their walls. I would get cards, letters and emails from people saying things like...."I love this month's picture so much, I feel desperate about turning to the coming month, only to discover another compelling image to live with for another month....." I was amazed to hear that many people are still using the 2000 calendar this year, by replacing the dates from another calendar.

Sand Sculpture - Here I was walking along the beach and saw a large crowd of people. They were surrounding a sand sculpture that this sculptor had made at low tide. It's something he did every Sunday at this same beach. And he always did it at low tide, which meant the life of the sculpture was only a few hours long, because when the tide came in, it washed it away. And he would guard it so no one would touch it but the incoming tide. But the fact that I have this on film makes it permanent, one of the strengths of photography.

Schooner - This is a good example of shooting a local situation. In this case it was the Mayor's Cup Schooner Race which happens every year here in Gloucester. This year was a bit special because it was the city's 375th anniversary. In any case, I was on a press boat with lots of press photographers, shooting this event. Everyone was shooting, directing the captain of the boat... "can we move here?.. there?... more to the left... to the right... hold it!" - Until all the other photographers felt they had covered it.

I had a large panorama camera with me. Since all the other photographers were finished, I had the boat to myself, meaning I could direct the captain as I liked. I asked him to follow the Ernestina, ( the ship on the left of the panorama) keeping the same distance and speed. After a while, the most wonderful thing happen. A woman walked out on the bow of the Ernestina and just stood there, relaxing. This gave me a sense of scale that I did not have in the previous images I made. Along with this, the ships were coming out of the fog into sunlight, so I could also see a unique configuration between all the racing ships in this class. It produced a memorable image.

Seine Boat Racer- It's relatively easy to make a beautiful picture of something that's beautiful. But in doing a project or book on a community or town, most of the situations you find yourself in are pretty mundane. There's a certain patriarchal system in the Italian community here in Gloucester and I wanted to describe it in a compelling way. I found it in the face of this Seine Boat Racer. Seine boat races take place every year in Gloucester during St. Peter's Fiesta. And these racers train all year long. For them, it's like training for the Olympics.

Robot/Rose - I shot this on assignment for Fortune Magazine many years ago. They wanted me to have the robotic arm hold an egg. My assistant and I brought a few eggs with us, but for some reason, I felt compelled to bring a few roses as well. Once we set up at the lab, the engineers informed us that the robotic arm couldn't actually hold the egg - that it was not advanced enough at that point to hold something so delicate. I found this incredible - that our notions about technology are advanced not by what's possible, but from movies and books.

In the end, the rose stem was also too delicate for the robotic fingers to hold on to. So I had to tape the rose to the fingers in order to produce the picture my editors expected. Of course I informed them of this, but they didn't seem to care.

Jerusalem - Photographers develop different styles as they grow. I evolved into someone who likes to wander and wait. This is a image I made at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I was there shooting with 50 other photojounalists on "A Day In The Life Of Israel" book a few years ago. But when I had time to myself, I would wander with my cameras. I saw this man dress in white crossing toward the Menorah I was focusing on with my camera and I waited to see if I could "light the Menorah" with him. And it worked out.

Dentist - This is a picture of my daughter when she was four years old at the dentist. This image and the next one really speak to why I carry cameras with me where ever I go. You could not fabricate a moment like this. You have to be there and be ready. However, as a rule, I photograph my daughter very little, because I don't like having a camera between us. So if she and I are fishing on a dock somewhere, I don't want to be taking pictures of her fishing. I want to be there - fishing with her. And I cannot do both. The switch is either on or off.)

Tern - Also an example of carrying a camera with you all the time. Here, I was flyfishing with friend and a tern took his fly. He had to release it, and I put my rod down and grabbed a camera. One of the wonderful things about this image is that if you look at the left wing of the tern, it looks like the movement of it's wing is creating the ripples in the water. I didn't see that when I shot it. But it's one of the subtleties that makes the image work.