Jeff Alu is a former exhibitions director at the orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) in Santa Ana, CA. During his time there he curated 5 photographic exhibitions, including two dedicated exclusively to cell phone photography, as well as numerous other exhibitions.
Prior to his life as a photographer, Jeff worked for a number of years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory hunting for asteroids and comets. This work involved using the 18” Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory, and numerous hours were spent in the darkroom processing the films shot with that telescope. Once processed, pairs of films were then scanned by eye using a stereomicroscope.
After his work ended at JPL and Palomar, he replaced the searching aspect with hiking in the California deserts looking for “interesting things”. Purchasing his first digital camera, a Kodak DC-280 digital 2.0 megapixel, he began to photograph what he found. This changed things for him forever.
Watch this video for more about Jeff’s photographic work:
Jeff views his own work as a combination of documentary, scientific, and illusionary and dreamlike. He loves to play with scale and give attention to otherwise unnoticed subjects. Alu states, ‘I’m constantly searching for what I like to call ‘clues.’ These clues generally represent the initiation of questions that should be asked, rather than answers to pre-defined questions. I never have a set idea of what it is I’m looking for. I simply seek, occasionally finding exactly what it is I wasn’t seeking. For me, that’s the time I learn something new about life: when I discover a new path, a new way of seeing, a new reason for continuing my search.’
Alu has been published in Black and White Magazine, Lenswork Extended, Adori Noir, Shots, as well as online at the Art Photo Index and the aCurator blog. A book of his images, “Jeff Alu:Surrealities” is published through Zero+ Publishing. He has also been a guest speaker for the Apple Store in Santa Monica, the Walt Disney Imagineering Photography Group, as well as the Marks Art Center in Palm Desert, CA.
Prior to his life as a photographer, Jeff worked for a number of years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory hunting for asteroids and comets. This work involved using the 18” Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory, and numerous hours were spent in the darkroom processing the films shot with that telescope. Once processed, pairs of films were then scanned by eye using a stereomicroscope.
After his work ended at JPL and Palomar, he replaced the searching aspect with hiking in the California deserts looking for “interesting things”. Purchasing his first digital camera, a Kodak DC-280 digital 2.0 megapixel, he began to photograph what he found. This changed things for him forever.
Watch this video for more about Jeff’s photographic work:
Jeff views his own work as a combination of documentary, scientific, and illusionary and dreamlike. He loves to play with scale and give attention to otherwise unnoticed subjects. Alu states, ‘I’m constantly searching for what I like to call ‘clues.’ These clues generally represent the initiation of questions that should be asked, rather than answers to pre-defined questions. I never have a set idea of what it is I’m looking for. I simply seek, occasionally finding exactly what it is I wasn’t seeking. For me, that’s the time I learn something new about life: when I discover a new path, a new way of seeing, a new reason for continuing my search.’
Alu has been published in Black and White Magazine, Lenswork Extended, Adori Noir, Shots, as well as online at the Art Photo Index and the aCurator blog. A book of his images, “Jeff Alu:Surrealities” is published through Zero+ Publishing. He has also been a guest speaker for the Apple Store in Santa Monica, the Walt Disney Imagineering Photography Group, as well as the Marks Art Center in Palm Desert, CA.