Photography has always been my hobby as well as the way I earn a living. During the fifty years I have been in photography I have built a collection of personal work - photography that is separate, but sometimes not so  different,  from the work I  do on assignment. These galleries contain that work - each gallery different from the others, but all work I did for myself.

To a degree a photographer can select the work he chooses to do for himself, but those choices may well be influenced by opportunity. Mine were. My personal galleries are divided based on the opportunities I had at different times in my career, but also on subject matter.

• In 1951 and 52 I was in the Army. I spent a year with a unit in Germany. The photographs in my first gallery were made during that year.

• During the 60s, 70s and early 80s I did as much commercial and advertising photography as I did portraiture. A lot of my work involved working with models. During those years a lot of my personal photographs were people pictures of the same models I worked with on assignments.

• During the last years that I operated a studio, most of my photography was portraits of children. I love photographing children, but my style of photography - a style we called Real Kids photography - was all about the kids. If I were going to continue with my personal photography, I would have to make my own opportunities. The photography in this gallery is of ordinary things that I tried to see in a little different way. 

I hope you will visit each of these galleries.

J.J. Allen