Alison Wright (photojournalist)

Alison Wright was a documentary photographer, author and public speaker. Wright travelled the globe documenting endangered cultures, people and issues concerning the human condition. She twice received a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award from the Society of American Travel Writers[1][2][3] and became a Dorothea Lange Fellow in Documentary Photography at the University of California, Berkeley in 1993.[4]

In January 2000, Wright was nearly killed in an accident in Laos, when the bus she was riding was hit by a logging truck.[5] Her story of survival has been featured in Outside magazine, National Geographic Adventure, and Yoga Journal,[2][6][7][8][9] and is documented in her memoir, Learning to Breathe: One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival.

After graduating from Watchung Hills Regional High School, Wright studied photojournalism as an undergraduate at Syracuse University[2] and received a master's degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.[3]

Alison was diving in the Azores and had a cardiac episode in March 2022. After a week in a coma she died on 23 March 2022.[10]

  1. ^ "The Lowell Thomas Awards". Society of American Travel Writers. 2005–2006. Archived from the original on June 20, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c Bella English (September 29, 2003). "Alison Wright: Her 'Faces of Hope' shows the spirit of children facing huge obstacles". The Boston Globe. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
  3. ^ a b Heather Knight (June 23, 2000). "Intrepid Photog Captures Tibetan Culture Alison Wright's work to show at Smithsonian". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
  4. ^ "Dorothea Lange Fellowship : the Fellows". University of California, Berleley. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  5. ^ "Alison Wright". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on June 21, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
  6. ^ Wright, Alison (May 2001). "If I Can Only Breathe". Outside. Archived from the original on 2010-09-19. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  7. ^ Wright, Alison (February 2005). "The Life That Almost Wasn't". Outside. Archived from the original on 2010-09-19. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
  8. ^ Dan Saelinger. "Everyday Survivors - Alison Wright: Beating the Impossible", National Geographic Adventure, August 2008. Retrieved on July 21, 2008.
  9. ^ "Postcard From the Edge". Yoga Journal. 28 August 2007.
  10. ^ "Alison Wright Death, Documentary Photographer Has Died". Death-Obituary.com. 2022-03-23. Retrieved 2022-03-24.