Artist Spotlight: Alan Brown
Alan Brown: Artist, Photographer, Creative Director, Perfectionist and now retired. Those are just a few of the words used to describe Photonics’ president and founder, Alan Brown. A graduate of Syracuse University with a BS degree in Communications, majoring in Advertising Photography and minoring in Art History, Alan has amassed more than four decades of experience with all facets of visual media. Alan started PhotoDesign, an advertising photography studio in 1981. He then started Photonics, a graphic design and web development firm in 1989 (32 years in business and recently sold) and also for six years was a partner in a socially responsible eco-friendly women’s apparel company, Tulong LLC . Spare time, when it exists, allows Alan to explore his love of photography and illustration and his disdain for being a purist.
How did you get introduced to your craft/medium?
I started at an early age into discovering the fun and excitement with photography. As an adult, I worked at a photography studio as a photographer and studio manager. That led me to establishing a photography studio with two partners. During that time in the late 1980’s, I shot people and special effects. Programs like Photoshop made doing those effects so much easier. I split from my partners after 11 ½ years and created Photonics (towards the end of our partnership). So that’s a really long answer. The briefer history is that I started focusing on digital art creation 1985 and have grown into it all these years. I don’t do photography anymore.
Please describe your process and materials used.
2-4 years ago, I was using 3D graphics allowing me to compose a scene- light it, and then render. I liked what it was doing and it was very beautiful in a photographic-kind-of-way. I started reading things about an approach that really excited me and that was something called Generative AI art. AI allows me to choose words or phrases that then can generate some interesting ideas. But the beauty of it is that I can revise, re-order, shorten or lengthen my
descriptions to hone in on what I’m trying to say. To say that it is a very iterative process as well as like learning a new language that AI uses. Each AI program out there responds differently and rarely look like each other. In fact, I can use the same words in the original program and never generate the same image I just created. I am also using none-AI programs to clean up and alter the original image until I am satisfied. So, it’s not instantaneous and always needs more than the AI can do. Let me be perfectly clear, I view Generative AI as another tool in my
toolbelt.
Who are some fellow artists, or artists in general, who have inspired you throughout your career?
Jerry Uelsmann and Ansel Adams were inspirations in my photography days. Jerry because he made very beautiful stories with multiple enlargers in the darkroom; Ansel for his ability to see and create images with beautiful ranges in tones in his B&W photos. Since then, I have added surrealism arts like René Magritte, sense of beautiful lighting like the work of Edward Hopper, and the abstraction of Salvador Dalí.
How long does it take you to complete a piece of work?
Anywhere from a few hours (rarely) to several days. I don’t have to worry about drying paint. Sometimes it takes a bit longer if I’m trying to get exactly what I want to get.
What is your favorite place you have lived?
Lived, Cincinnati. Love to visit, it gets a bit broader. I have favorite places all over. I would choose Kharkiv, Ukraine, France, and the United Kingdom. I’ve been other places but these are the ones I’ve really felt something special about them.
