Allen Crooks

I am a native of Nova Scotia currently living in Halifax. My adventure with photography started later in life. I bought my first serious camera several months after my 40th birthday in 2002. Little did I know what would evolve with that camera.  In November that year I was assigned to a 4-month project in Bruges, Belgium. After many years of yearning for my first trip to Europe it became a reality and my "new best friend” was the first thing packed for the journey.  Glorious weekends were spent in Paris following in the footsteps of so many photographers who have wandered its illustrious streets. Hundreds of rolls of film later it was obvious that the majority were typical snapshots but my heart and eye were being trained and nurtured.

I attended continuing education photography courses at NSCAD and obtain a diploma in photographer. This was my first taste of the whole process including printing/developing silver gelatin prints. This truly is a magical process that I wish everyone could witness at least one in their lifetime.

In the ensuing 8 years photography has become to be about more than just taking pictures. Photography has allowed me access to a community of like-minded individuals willing to share their images, experiences, laughs and great meals together. In addition to this there is the mental archive of images inside my head resulting from the exposure to images by legendary figures in photography. These are people, who for the most part, I will never meet but they are also part of the community that I rely on for inspiration and influence in my own photographs.

In some respects I had regretted not finding photography earlier in life but realize that it found me at just the right time...