fp-main-img

MY NAME IS KIRSTEN

I’m a travel photographer based in Los Angeles. I’ve worked in more than 50 countries on 6 continents. The biggest passion that drives me is using my skills to help others and to tell visual stories that are socially conscious or environmentally responsible. Shop my Store or Learn more…

Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.

– WALKER EVANS

Instagram Kirsten Alana

Follow my daily posts to see where I am and what I’m currently working on! I also provide travel tips and historical details in my captions so you can use my feed like your own personal guide book.

Reading a lot of reports about quiet squares, usua

Reading a lot of reports about quiet squares, usually bustling with Christmas Markets, and subdued celebrations this year. None of us are alone, not really, if we’re feeling a loss with regards to the holidays. But what’s that saying about how we “keep Christmas in our hearts”....
🎄
This was the Christmas Market in Frankfurt, @germanytourism quite a few years back but I still think of it often because of this particular vignette with the extraordinary natural sculpture on the front of the office building which formed such an intriguing backdrop to the stalls selling sausages on rolls, glühwein and ornaments. It was one of the most delightful markets I’ve been to in Germany and I’m so grateful to have been to quite a few in the past.
✨
If you’re looking for more Christmas cheer, I’m enjoying @santaclauslondon and the series that my friend @jentemple is currently doing. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope however you spend these winter months, that some unexpected blessing or cheer finds its way to you. ❤️

📢 Just got another update from the labs I use,

I miss... strolling the streets of Europe in Decem

I miss... strolling the streets of Europe in December, the shine of holiday lights illuminating pavement hundreds of years old, worn with time, slippery in the lightly falling snow; sipping Glühwein from steaming mugs, afraid to burn my tongue lest I miss the taste of treats I can’t pronounce covered in sugar I shouldn’t be allowing myself; choosing presents for friends back home, stacked high in booths manned by smiling locals speaking languages I only know a few words of; getting lost but not minding when there’s always something new to see; hearing live music bounce off walls older than my country,
.
.
.
.
making memories to warm me on on cold nights years later when sorrow knocks at the door, demanding to be let in.
.
.
.
In the collection of things 2020 has taken from us, being denied what was once an annual trip to the continent, one I looked forward to all year long - is truly nothing. It’s insignificant. But it’s still a loss. And I’ve had enough loss for a while. Really trying not to get hopes up for 2021 and what it might bring. But my god it’s difficult some days. So I just wanted to share a light-filled photo and say if you’re hurting too, you’re not alone. ❤️ ✨

If you had to take a photo of ‘air’, what woul

If you had to take a photo of ‘air’, what would that look like? 🌬❄️ 🌪 I asked this on Twitter when I was invited to become an ‘Artist for Air’ by @tomorrowsair_ This is one of 3 images they chose to share when they announced my having been chosen and is similar in concept to some of the answers I received. In the end, it’s a bit nebulous and personal. Still, I look forward to the challenge as a volunteer artist with the Tomorrow’s Air team who are passionate travellers working together to clean carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in partnership with direct air capture innovator Climeworks. From their site, “Travel contributes significantly to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere; travel makes up 8% of more of all carbon emissions considering transport, accommodation, shopping, & meals. The atmosphere that protects Earth from the sun and preserves our stable climate has limits to the emissions that it can contain. It now contains so much CO2 that even if all emissions halted tomorrow, we would still have to clean our atmosphere because it takes hundreds to thousands of years to remove by natural processes alone. Scientists agree that carbon removal is necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. Offsetting emissions is not the same as removing them permanently. With carbon offsetting, the purchaser of the offset compensates for its own emissions by paying someone else to avoid emissions elsewhere. We can’t just plant more trees to solve our atmosphere’s carbon dioxide problem because the amount of carbon dioxide that has to be removed is too great in the desired timeline to do it. One estimate for doing this with trees alone is 700 years. To keep our planet’s climate stable, we need to be at net zero emissions by 2050.” 🌎 That’s why before I was asked to join, I was already a customer paying to help remove carbon dioxide through the collective. Now I’m proud to help represent this as one more option for how we can take care of ourselves & the planet. Whether you subscribe to Tomorrow’s Air for carbon removal or simply join us to help spread the word, I hope I’ve helped you understand its importance as an option. #TomorrowsAir

#GivingTuesday is a wonderful concept that I’ve

#GivingTuesday is a wonderful concept that I’ve loved since the year it was founded. I also think giving should be a 24/7/365 practice and it’s in that spirit that I’ve founded @raising4change. I quietly soft-launched a few weeks ago to get feedback while working out kinks so I could publicly launch today. Raising for Change is photographers with purpose, raising funds to change the world through the selling of prints and photographic products. It’s a Give + Get store powered by @shopify. I won’t be taking a salary or making money from it. Anything I would make, will instead go right back into funding RfC with the long term stretch goal of: featuring lesser-known photographers in local markets all over the world and turning this over to the group so participating photographers all share ownership, there’s an advisory board and we can achieve 501(c)(3) status, making all purchases by all our supporters tax deductible. Big plans! Proceeds from what we sell will support causes ranging from racial justice and food security to homelessness and climate protection. Our photographers choose the cause their work benefits. This is about supporting people and planet as directly as possible and promoting small businesses. Because most photographers and beneficial organizations that I know... are in fact, a small business! If any of that sounds at all interesting to you, I would be so grateful if you’d head over to @raising4change to learn more. Or AMA in the comments ⤵️

dreams of travel might still be on hold but how ar

dreams of travel might still be on hold but how are you doing otherwise? how’s your hope tank? your coping mechanisms? are you getting the support you need?
.
if no to any of the above, how can I help you? 💛
.
as for me, I continue to be slightly cheered by friends and allies of the USA who are happy with the direction of things and have hope for what could happen after January 20. It reminds me of this moment in Northern Ireland when @bushmillsinn flew the Stars & Stripes for all of us who were visiting from the states. It was such a sweet welcome. And it causes me to find further hope in the people who really make travel what it is. The individuals. We can’t control the actions of our leaders or our government [though we’ve seen how choosing to vote and being informed can help haven’t we!] — but when we travel we can smile, we can be kind, we can practice gratefulness and try to be generous in return whenever we are gifted with generosity. And that’s what I look forward to getting back to most when we are past this pandemic: meeting people and truly getting to know them. It’s so difficult to do from 6 feet away and behind a mask. But I choose to believe there’s a future where we won’t have to do that anymore. 🙏🤞✨

honestly just posting this to give a little love t

Thinking of all the places we still can’t travel

Thinking of all the places we still can’t travel to and really hoping that will change, now. I felt encouraged by the positive response to our election results from world leaders such as Macron in France, leaders in Germany, Scotland, Ireland and Canada. All favorite places. And there were more. I want our leaders to work together to get this virus under control in a way that doesn’t continue to destroy lives and livelihoods. I’m cautiously hopeful, is the point.
.
How are you feeling??

Load More... Follow on Instagram

Reading a lot of reports about quiet squares, usua

Reading a lot of reports about quiet squares, usually bustling with Christmas Markets, and subdued celebrations this year. None of us are alone, not really, if we’re feeling a loss with regards to the holidays. But what’s that saying about how we “keep Christmas in our hearts”....
🎄
This was the Christmas Market in Frankfurt, @germanytourism quite a few years back but I still think of it often because of this particular vignette with the extraordinary natural sculpture on the front of the office building which formed such an intriguing backdrop to the stalls selling sausages on rolls, glühwein and ornaments. It was one of the most delightful markets I’ve been to in Germany and I’m so grateful to have been to quite a few in the past.
✨
If you’re looking for more Christmas cheer, I’m enjoying @santaclauslondon and the series that my friend @jentemple is currently doing. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope however you spend these winter months, that some unexpected blessing or cheer finds its way to you. ❤️

📢 Just got another update from the labs I use,

I miss... strolling the streets of Europe in Decem

I miss... strolling the streets of Europe in December, the shine of holiday lights illuminating pavement hundreds of years old, worn with time, slippery in the lightly falling snow; sipping Glühwein from steaming mugs, afraid to burn my tongue lest I miss the taste of treats I can’t pronounce covered in sugar I shouldn’t be allowing myself; choosing presents for friends back home, stacked high in booths manned by smiling locals speaking languages I only know a few words of; getting lost but not minding when there’s always something new to see; hearing live music bounce off walls older than my country,
.
.
.
.
making memories to warm me on on cold nights years later when sorrow knocks at the door, demanding to be let in.
.
.
.
In the collection of things 2020 has taken from us, being denied what was once an annual trip to the continent, one I looked forward to all year long - is truly nothing. It’s insignificant. But it’s still a loss. And I’ve had enough loss for a while. Really trying not to get hopes up for 2021 and what it might bring. But my god it’s difficult some days. So I just wanted to share a light-filled photo and say if you’re hurting too, you’re not alone. ❤️ ✨

If you had to take a photo of ‘air’, what woul

If you had to take a photo of ‘air’, what would that look like? 🌬❄️ 🌪 I asked this on Twitter when I was invited to become an ‘Artist for Air’ by @tomorrowsair_ This is one of 3 images they chose to share when they announced my having been chosen and is similar in concept to some of the answers I received. In the end, it’s a bit nebulous and personal. Still, I look forward to the challenge as a volunteer artist with the Tomorrow’s Air team who are passionate travellers working together to clean carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in partnership with direct air capture innovator Climeworks. From their site, “Travel contributes significantly to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere; travel makes up 8% of more of all carbon emissions considering transport, accommodation, shopping, & meals. The atmosphere that protects Earth from the sun and preserves our stable climate has limits to the emissions that it can contain. It now contains so much CO2 that even if all emissions halted tomorrow, we would still have to clean our atmosphere because it takes hundreds to thousands of years to remove by natural processes alone. Scientists agree that carbon removal is necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. Offsetting emissions is not the same as removing them permanently. With carbon offsetting, the purchaser of the offset compensates for its own emissions by paying someone else to avoid emissions elsewhere. We can’t just plant more trees to solve our atmosphere’s carbon dioxide problem because the amount of carbon dioxide that has to be removed is too great in the desired timeline to do it. One estimate for doing this with trees alone is 700 years. To keep our planet’s climate stable, we need to be at net zero emissions by 2050.” 🌎 That’s why before I was asked to join, I was already a customer paying to help remove carbon dioxide through the collective. Now I’m proud to help represent this as one more option for how we can take care of ourselves & the planet. Whether you subscribe to Tomorrow’s Air for carbon removal or simply join us to help spread the word, I hope I’ve helped you understand its importance as an option. #TomorrowsAir

Load More... Follow on Instagram

Get social by following me on these platforms but make sure to engage so I can get to know you back!

How Honeymoons Will Look in 2021 thumbnail

January 21, 2021

How Honeymoons Will Look in 2021

The Perfect Sound System for Your Road Trip thumbnail

August 26, 2020

The Perfect Sound System for Your Road Trip

Black Lives Matter [and more] Resources thumbnail

June 16, 2020

Black Lives Matter [and more] Resources

Earth Day 2020: Tips and Advice thumbnail

April 22, 2020

Earth Day 2020: Tips and Advice

7 Reasons to Visit San Francisco in 2020 thumbnail

January 30, 2020

7 Reasons to Visit San Francisco in 2020

See where I’ve been, where I am and where I’m going next…

FEATURED BY

DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY | WEBSITE BY FURTHER BOUND | Portraits of Kirsten by Danté Vincent | COPYRIGHT © KIRSTEN ALANA 2008-2021