Jules Allen

Jules Allen, Professor Emeritus, City University of New York, Department of Art and Design at Queensborough College, is an award-winning photographer who creates reality-based images as well as metaphorical documents of which the primary foundation is grounded in behavior, enlightenment and irony. His aesthetic vision is rooted in music, gesture and ritual which renders American culture both locally and abroad.

Born in San Francisco, CA in 1947, Allen attended California State University, where he took his first formal photography class, studying with Jack Welpott, a well known, "west coast" portrait and landscape photographer, student and protégé of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. Allen obtained a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1973 and M.S. in Clinical Counseling Psychology in 1975, the latter was a conscious choice to facilitate the understanding of human behavior.

Working as a New York commercial photographer in editorial, advertising and entertainment, Allen actively pursued the development of a personal vision. Early influences in photography for Allen were Edward Weston, Cartier Bresson and Robert Frank, as well as Roy deCarava, with whom he studied at Hunter College and obtained a Masters in Fine Arts in 1985.

The recipient of numerous grants and awards, Allen has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad. His photographs are included in museums and private collections worldwide, inclusive of the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, the National Gallery, the Schomburg Center for Culture & Research and others.

More of Allen's work can be viewed and purchased via www.julesallen.photography