Featured Photographer

Max Allara

Close view of desert plant, possibly agave, California

My camera is a tool to record light and open up new doors of visual experience. --Massimino Frederico Allara.

Maxwell Allara (May 29, 1906-1981) was born in Tonco, Italy as Massimino Frederico Allara. He came to the US at the age of three with his parents and grew up in Portland, Oregon. He left to study for a year at the University of California, Berkeley and then attended the California School of Fine Arts. During the 1930s he worked as a magazine photo-illustrator for the Globe Picture Agency in New York City. He returned to Portland in the late 1930s and worked as the display manager for the Meier & Frank department store where he met his future wife, Helen Luhr. He became an American citizen and joined the army to serve in the Pacific in World War II. He was wounded in action and listed as missing. In 1945, he married Helen and they opened the Allara Studio on 35th and Division Street as partners. Later, in 1950, they moved their business to their house on Clinton Street. Besides their commercial work, they also created artistic photography as well as oil and watercolor paintings.

He became more interested in photography as a form of expression. He became a life-long member of the Camera Club of Oregon which included photographers Ray Atkinson, Al Monner, Stacy Wong, and others. He also joined the Oregon Society of Artists. His professional photography appeared regularly in the Oregon Journal; his more artistic work appeared in the influential photography magazine Aperture. As a member of the Oregon Society of Artists, he exhibited his photography in a number of shows around Oregon in association with "Group 15" during 1958-1959. At these shows he learned about the work and philosophy of Minor White. Allara shared Minor White's philosophy that a photograph was more than a simple image. Allara echoed this idea in believing that the image became more than "just the subject matter." In 1960 Minor White organized a group of Portland based photographers into the Advanced Interim Workshop Group. Allara was a assistant to Minor White from 1960-1965. He also became friends with the photographer, Brett Weston, the son of the famous photographer, Edward Weston. He continued to operate his studio and exhibit until his death in 1981.

Some images from Allara's collection.

Close view of desert plant, possibly agave, California

Jane [portrait of a woman]

Old tree with sculptural trunk, Portland, Oregon

Wildrose Charcoal Kilns in Death Valley, California

Portrait of a woman

Log boom and boat under St. Johns Bridge, Portland, Oregon