Alison Stieven-Taylor

Visual communications biography: 

Alison Stieven-Taylor is an international photography commentator and journalist. For more than a decade she has written about, and championed, photography working to promote Australian photographers on the world stage. She has interviewed internationally renowned photographers such as Sebastian Salgado, Don McCullin, Susan Meiselas, Donna Ferrato, Paula Bronstein and Paolo Pellegrin, as well as lesser known photographers from around the globe. She’s written features on Australian photographers including Stephen Dupont, Robyn Beeche, Megan Lewis, David Dare Parker, Michael Coyne, Ben Bohane, Robyn Stacey and Hoda Afshar. In all, Alison has interviewed more than 100 photographers. 

Freelance journalist: Her writing has appeared in newspapers including The Guardian, The Australian and Australian Financial Review, World Press Photo Witness, the French journal The Eye of Photography, and magazines Pro Photo (Australia), Pro Photographer (NZ) and Australian Book Review Arts. She is also the publisher of the internationally read weekly blog Photojournalism Now established in 2012. Alison was awarded Ph.D. in 2024 for her thesis: Power, Control & Liberation: The enduring relationship between the prestige press, social documentary photographers and freelance photojournalists. Alison’s Ph.D. builds on her Master thesis which considered the future of photojournalism in the digital age. She is a lecturer in journalism, PR and strategic communication at Monash University (Australia) and teaches at undergrad and post-graduate levels.

Awards juror: Additionally, Alison has been a judge in the FotoEvidence New York W Award, a new women’s photography book award (2020), FotoEvidence Book Award (2016), for the prestigious Nikon-Walkley Awards for Excellence in Photojournalism (2016), for Australia’s largest photography festival Head On Photo Festival (2015) and the Australia & New Zealand PhotoBook Awards (2015).

Program selection panelist: She has also been on the program selection panel for the Indian Photography Festival open call (2017), the Voice of Hope & Humanity Festival in Bangladesh (2020) and Sydney's Head On Photo Festival (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024).

Guest speaker: She has been a guest speaker in the Head On seminar program (2016-2021). In 2019 Alison was a guest speaker at the Pingyao International Photography Education Forum, Pingyao China. In 2016 she was invited to speak on the future of photojournalism at the Auckland Festival of Photography, New Zealand. In 2018 Alison was a guest speaker at the International Women’s Day event in Melbourne hosted by FujiFilm where she gave a paper on photography as social change. Alison has also been a portfolio reviewer for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (2015) and a portfolio judge for CATC Design School (2014). 

Curatorial work: In 2019 the exhibition The Female Eye, curated by Alison debuted at the Pingyao International Photo Festival, China (September). The following year the exhibition featured at the Auckland Festival of Photography (2020). In 2019 (and 2014) Alison was the curator of a 30-artist collection for Your Daily Photograph (sponsored by the Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles).  

Other: 

Alison is also the author of two non-fiction books:

Rock Chicks: The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now (2007 and updated edition 2011)

Price of Love: An expose on the dating industry (2005)