About aliryan
Currently the room that I’m sitting in a 2x3 metre shoebox that has no windows, but a badly boarded up hole that I covered with a rug to block out any promiscuous sounds. Living on top of a shop front on one of Melbourne’s busiest roads, it’s owned by an art activist group who assemble weekly polyamorous meets, for couples who struggle with the complexity of having a milt- person relationship (to put it loosely). My room is most definitely a fire hazard, so why do I live here?
Two reasons, one its dirt cheap for the location its in. Two, living in rough situations stimulates the creativeness in me. It makes me want to know more about the world around me and the different lifestyles people lead. All the ideas I’ve had are from putting myself outside the comfort zone, and photography has always been there to capture those moments.
It’s the best of what I know. Taking photos is such a big part of who I am, from the moment I wake up till when I go to sleep and even in my dreams. Constantly thinking about how to make better images, about that next project, researching new techniques and in what ways can I make an impact using film/photography? Photojournalism for me is trying to capture atmosphere and people’s emotions in whatever situations they might be in. Finding that one story that will make all the difference.
“Our First responsibility is to the people who’s story we are trying to tell, to give these people a voice” – David Dare Parker
Born and raised in the small city of Wodonga, the Mexican side of the NSW and Victoria border. “The Dong” as we locals call it, (both for abbreviation and to be crude), was the ideal place to grow up. You went to school, you worked, you played sports, and when you turned 18, you wagged all of those things to go drinking at the pub. With approximately 31,000 people, I’m not gonna lie we’re a fair dinkum bogon community. In the summer we would spent most of our time down by the Murray or at the Hume Weir, swimming, fishing, drinking beer, and showing off the occasional burnout.
Life in Wodonga was simple. Too simple, and the thought of working at McDonalds for the rest of my life was my absolute fear. It wasn’t easy to get out either when you’re surrounded by people’s mentality to get married, buy a house, and have kids, and not necessarily in that order either. My folks “the positive reinforcement unit” had always encouraged me to be the best I can be and not to get married till I’m at least thirty. Being the only non-ranga out of my two older brothers and a younger sister, I was the milk mans daughter, or so the joke would go. That out-cast humour fuelled my determination to want to do something different with my life and at age twenty-one that’s exactly what I did.
“Even as a child she was always off on some adventure, which meant more offend then not we would have to search the streets for an escaped toddler” Sue Ryan
In a nutshell, I’m country girl at heart, moved to the big smoke to pursuit photography. Commencing study at RMIT in 2010, I quickly relies the competiveness of my career choice. Having to continuously look for what was going to make me standout from the rest. For me it was simply just gaining knowledge, and from that I took on every opportunity that came at me.
In that kind of learning environment there was nothing but opportunities. I’ve photographed various things from weddings, fashion, landscape, architecture, educational videos, mini documentaries, to respected cookbooks. After all of that exposure, my heart still lies with photojournalism, purely because it’s a powerful tool for story telling. Where would our stories be without imagery?
Beyond my fascination with photography, story telling is very much apart of me. I’m interested in people and I have had people warm and grow to trust me enough to tell their stories. This is apparent in my final year at RMIT, majoring short documentary films that represented different lifestyles of people who live in Melbourne. vimeo.com/aliryan.
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