Meet Your Fellow ASMP Member – Allegra Anderson

The ASMP CT Newsletter and website is changing for the better! “Meet Your Fellow ASMP Member” will be a monthly feature that will highlight one of our members at the beginning of each month.  

All of us have unique photography backgrounds and skills that other members may not be aware of.  By featuring members we hope to share some of these unique skill sets with the membership and encourage members to reach out to each other.

Our first member to be featured in “Meet Your Fellow Member” is our chapter President, Allegra Anderson. This is Allegra’s first year as chapter President after serving as chapter Vice President for two years. However, Allegra already had a rich history in photography before joining ASMP.

Allegra comes from a family of artists who encouraged and supported her when she became interested in photography. “My mother was an artist, and my father was interested in technology, and they encouraged me to take up photography,” says Allegra. During high school, Allegra’s interest in photography took off, and she encouraged her teachers and guidance counselor to let her take additional photography classes instead of the standard electives. This no doubt helped in Allegra being accepted into Tufts University’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts program for photography/filmmaking. During her time at Tufts, she also studied Media Communications, which lead to her next opportunity in Boston.

After graduating from Tufts with a BFA in Fine Arts and a minor in Media Communications, Allegra went into television production with a job on PBS’s This Old House. While she was hired for her production skills, Allegra also did still photography work. “I created a position for myself by taking before and after shots of the project.” During her five and a half years at This Old House, Allegra also held the positions of Segment Producer and Supervising Producer. Yet one of her most significant accomplishments was the result of her work on the documentary “New Orleans: Getting Back to Normal” where she won an Emmy. The documentary focused on the people of New Orleans who rebuilt their homes and lives after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2013 Allegra moved back to Connecticut and launched her own photography business, which is located in South Glastonbury. When starting her business, she was also looking for a professional photography association. Allegra says, “I knew I needed to get involved with a professional organization to learn more about the logistics of it. ASMP seemed to really fit since I wanted to get into the commercial side of it.” Joining ASMP permitted Allegra to meet and learn from other photographers about topics like pricing for commercial work, which, as Allegra says, was foreign to her, because she had only worked as an in-house photographer.

Now six years later, Allegra’s photography business is thriving. Allegra says her work typically focuses on portraiture, food, and interiors and that she usually works with magazines, commercial clients, and marketing companies. Yet Allegra says that “One thing that is very important to me is exploring personal projects.” As an example of this, Allegra says that she is currently working on a year-long project with GreenWave of New Haven that is looking at how our oceans can be farmed instead of just harvested.

One final point that Allegra shared with me was, “This past year, I’ve started to explore how I can use my photography to shed light on social issues that are important to me. I’m very passionate about health, wellness, sustainability, and the environment. Through my photography, I want to start a conversation about these topics and collaborate with businesses that are making a positive impact on the world.”​

More about Allegra and her work can be found at Allegra Anderson