My Father, The Professional Photographer

Last Saturday at Coachlight Manor, we were treated to a wonderful photography exhibit by my father, Robert Alexander & some of his students. He has now been a professional photographer for over 6o years. He presented both recent work and some photos that were examples of his very first photos. The 50 photos ranged from hummingbirds to University of Mississippi beauties.


After over 60 years of of specializing in the "Hollywood Style" of portraits and Military Reunion groups, he taught Digital Photography and Photoshop at Holmes Community College. He has been fortunate to have his best male student, Ed Gardner, who is also the Official Photographer of the MS Braves baseball team, join him in photographing the military reunions pictures.

He has honed his craft through the years and was also one of the driving forces behind the establishment of MS/ALA Professional Photographers Association. A former Naval aviator, he returned to his home state of Mississippi where his career began. As cameras evolved, so did his methods and as recently as two years ago he was still teaching the Community College course. His exhibit at Holmes CC had almost 1,000 people in attendance when it was shown there.

Although this exhibit was on a smaller scale, the residents and attendees enjoyed a holiday afternoon visiting, eating wonderful refreshments made by Mrs. Hanna and her helpers, and looking at the pictures that had been made. With the exception of a few, all photographs were taken during the past two years. I thought you might like to see what 83+ year old people in our neck of the woods do as a pasttime!

Pictured are a few of the attendees and some of his work both past and present.