A native of Downingtown in southeastern Pennsylvania, Stacy Alger has been a black and white photographer and printer for most of her life. In high school she discovered her father’s 35mm Mamiya Sekor and often “borrowed” it to shoot photos of her favorite music artists such as Patti Smith at local concerts. When she needed to quickly add a class to fulfill an elective requirement, she chose photography. Immediately Stacy recognized photography as something she wanted to pursue. After graduation, she enrolled at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, ultimately receiving a B.F.A. in Photographic Illustration.
After finishing her studies at RIT, Stacy headed to New York City, an international center for modern photography. Especially interested in the complex black and white printing process, she began printing professionally for master printer and photographer Gary Schneider at Schneider/Erdman, Inc. Their clients included Bruce Davidson, Gilles Peres, Mary Ellen Mark, Mario Testino, James Casebere, Peter Hujar, Louise Dahl-Wolfe and many of the other top commercial and art photographers of the day. Stacy also began shooting the local music industry, eventually becoming a featured photographer of the New York underground music scene in the1980s.
In 1991, on a spontaneous impulse, Stacy moved to Nashville, Tennessee in order to photograph the newly changing and expanding country music business that was developing there. She became an assistant to the portraitist Jim McGuire who was one of a handful of photographers who literally shot every up and coming and well-known musician in Nashville for decades. Eventually Stacy was hired by many of the major songwriters, artists, publishers and record companies, capturing many of the colorful living legends, while also documenting the future stars on their way up. She is currently compiling a body of work to be included in a large format book.
Returning back to NYC in the new century, Stacy became the Associated Press portrait photographer for the greater New York region. The variety of the people she photographed was impressive and included the ridiculous to the sublime – i.e. Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Comedienne Traci Ullman, Actresses Heather Graham and Debi Mazur, the Buddhist monk Trudi Jinpu Hirsh and Rapper Chuck D.
Back home in Downingtown she did a stint as the Staff Photographer of The Daily Local News covering Chester County, Pennsylvania and regional assignments. She shot portraits of the living members of the famous Wyeth family including Anne Wyeth McCoy and Jamie Wyeth. She also photographed the actual locations of Andrew Wyeth’s famous paintings including the site of “Christina’s World” and others. She shot the local political scene and happenings of local interest – ice-fishing on Marsh Creek Dam or the results of the school board meeting. She was also sent to document the final day of the famous Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia before it was imploded. Then she was off to Union Square after 911 to cover the aftermath of the disaster in an area where she once lived. It was a period of discovery and excitement.
Today Stacy is back in the Nashville area living a quiet life with her husband, songwriter Pat Alger and their dog Scout. She is a dedicated volunteer for a couple of wildlife rescue centers and very much a part of the community there again. Although she is still shooting with a Nikon camera she is now exploring the modern world of digital photography in color, an environmentally friendly alternative to the classic black and white photographic processes she spent so many years mastering. Stacy is still photographing portraits of the local “indie” music scene and as always is keeping a keen eye out for the extraordinary among the commonplace – still capturing those unique people, places and things that make the natural world we live in an interesting and vital place.