Jann Alexander

A fine arts photographer and painter, Jann Alexander has built on a three-decades long career as an award-winning art director/designer to pursue her lifelong passion for photography and art, following her first visit to Austin in 2004. Though an East coast resident since childhood, she was smitten by the city’s unique artsy charm and “got here as quick as she could.” Once settled in, she found the city’s special visual culture so magnetic that she began looking for creative ways to record its constant inspiration, experimenting first with painting, then re-discovering the power of fine art photography. Jann has since found focus in Austin’s architectural gems, both old and new, and the cityscape’s never-ending scenic possibilities.

Her on-going photography project, Vanishing Austin, records the Austin she first fell in love with—and sounds a visual alarm to what its residents stand to lose in the face of potentially insensitive redevelopment. The series especially contrasts the often-contradictory beauty of the old juxtaposed against the new. Her work appeals to those who consider the images an artistic and nostalgic documentary of Austin’s irresistible scenic gumbo.

Her original paintings of southwest landscapes, mission churches and Mexican scenes, in vivid, richly-textured oil on canvas (always from her own photographs, focusing on themes with a personal connection), complement similar work in fine-art photography.