It Started with a Lighthouse ...
- Chris Hilton
- Dec 28, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 18, 2025
A chance encounter with a strange man on a deserted beach in Nova Scotia whilst on honeymoon led to the actual moment, the catalyst, that started Alison on her visual voyage ... and now, eight years later she's reached her photographic pinnacle: presenting her talk to Bridport Camera Club.
Along the way she picked up an LRPS, an ARPS and an FRPS, she exhibits regularly with DIP, and as well as solo shows, there's been a photo book, a novel, zines, painting canvasses and an autism diagnosis ... she's been very busy since that strange man dragged her along the beach to look at the lighthouse whilst her husband slumbered.
They way she captured the light falling on that lighthouse sent her off, travelling, collecting colour landscapes with a proficiency that soon got her noticed, being shortlisted for Outdoor Photographer of the Year very early on in her shooting career ... but ... she was taking the sorts of pictures she thought she was 'supposed' to take, not the ones that filled her soul. Soon she progressed to Mono landscape and then to a more contemporary style as she began to use photography as a way to come to terms with, and explore, her autism.
Alison's talk touched on so much, both personal and photographic but I'd like to remind you of what she said about social media in particular ... how the obsession with that dopamine hit you get when someone clicks 'like', can very easily slip into addiction, how you can fall into the trap of measuring success by the number of likes and followers ... how that metric then leads you to being a bit 'samey', into self limiting your own creativity and style. Alison calls this process the the 'Cycle of Dopamine or Despair' ... the phrase so sums up my own thoughts on the subject that I nicked it and use it in my own talks ... in my defence, whilst stealing someone else's idea can be seen as plagiarism, stealing lots of ideas is research (I nicked that too)! But seriously, that is what the club is all about, gathering ideas and influences.
We are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants, and thus we are able to see more and farther than the latter. And this is not at all because of the acuteness of our sight or the stature of our body, but because we are carried aloft and elevated by the magnitude of the giants
Bernard of Chartres
Alison Webber is one of the giants amongst us ...
Start the New Year by joining us at our next talk ...
