Nubar Alexanian is a documentary photographer whose worked has been featured in major magazines in the United States and Europe including The New York Times Magazine, Life, Fortune, GEO, Time and Newsweek. For the past 35 years he has travelled to more than 30 countries focusing on long term personal projects which describe the human condition. In 2008 he completed his fifth book, ”NONFICTION” PHOTOGRAPHS BY NUBAR ALEXANIAN FROM THE FILM SETS OF ERROL MORRIS, (Walker Creek Press) a 15 year collaboration with filmmaker Errol Morris. Solo exhibitions of this work have been shown at The Walker Art Center, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Caren Golden Fine Art Gallery (NYC) The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, The LOOK3 Festival, and Clark University.
Nubar Alexanian was born in 1950 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the second of four children and was prized as the first son in an orthodox Armenian family. He was the grandson of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and grew up speaking Armenian with his grandfather who lived in the apartment upstairs, only learning English upon entering elementary school.
Alexanian was the first in his family to go to college. He attended Boston University for two years in the thick of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, and it was then that he first began taking pictures in an effort to understand and describe what he saw. Alexanian explains, “a camera gives you the license to do almost anything. I picked up a camera as a way of getting closer to what was happening in Boston during that era.” [1] He describes “the power of photography” as an act of witness: a way to observe the world up close, in a personal way. When describing himself as a student and a budding photographer in a competitive field, Alexanian credits growing up in a working class family with giving him the motivation and work ethic to succeed as a photographer.
After two years at BU, Alexanian took time off to attend and teach at the New England School of Photography. He then left photography school and later became a member of the first class in the University Without Walls program at the University of Massachusetts, where he got credit for teaching at the New England School of Photography from 1973-1974. He graduated in 1974 with a BA in Liberal Arts.
After his time as an instructor at the Art Institute of Boston (1972—1974) and at the New England School of Photography (1973—1975), in 1975 Alexanian co-founded the Essex Photographic Workshop, one of the first residential photographic programs in the country, located in Essex, Massachusetts. He since has conducted workshops and given lectures all over the world, including the ICP in New York and the Gaudi School of Photography in Peru. More recently, Alexanian has facilitated critique groups in the Boston area for photographers who are working on long-term personal projects.
Alexanian’s first trip out of the country was to Peru in 1974. From 1978 to 1989 he traveled extensively to Peru documenting the life and culture of the [Andean] people. He received a Fulbright Artist Fellowship in 1983 to continue his work in Peru, allowing him to live and work there for six months. The culmination of this work, Stones in the Road: Photographs of Peru, documents the migration of the Andean culture from the mountains to the shanty towns in and around Lima, one of the many tragedies caused by civil war and a growing illegal drug industry.
In 1996 Alexanian published his first major color project, the book Where Music Comes From. This work, five years in the making, documents the creative processes of twenty-five musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Philip Glass, Emmylou Harris, and Paul Simon, among others.
After traveling extensively for Stones in the Road and Where Music Comes from, Alexanian turned toward his own town: Gloucester, Massachusetts. His book, Gloucester Photographs, depicts the town he knows and loves so well, making this work both documentary and autobiographical.
In 2002, in collaboration with Wynton Marsalis, Alexanian published JAZZ, a collection of images and quotations that illustrate the musical conversation between Marsalis and his audience.
In 2005, Alexanian shot fifty portraits for the best selling book This I Believe, which also aired as a radio series on National Public Radio from 2005-2007.
Alexanian recently completed his fifth book, NONFICTION Photographs by Nubar Alexanian from the Film Sets of Errol Morris, released in the spring of 2008. This work is a long-term collaboration with Errol Morris, comprising stills from the sets of Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Mr. Death, and Standard Operating Procedure, among others.
The Professor of Swing, 1998, cinematic portrait of Wynton Marsalis, work in progress.
The Clifford Ball, 1994, co-director of a documentary film about the band Phish that aired on MTV. 30 minutes.
Flamenco Shorts, 2004 Director & Director of Photography, shot in HD on sound stage in Halifax, Nova Scotia, four short films of flamenco performances.
Flamenco Nuevo, 2007 Director & Director of Photography, four camera HD shoot in Spain about a flamenco troupe, 90 minutes.
Perfect Hearing, a radio documentary about tinnitus and hearing loss, produced by Nubar Alexanian and Abby Alexanian, with Jay Allison. Aired in February 2004 on This American Life.
