downtown memphis photographer ally perkins

Ally Perkins - Roberts

Memphis Wedding Photographer & Documentarian

Time is cruel in the most beautiful way.

What remains a constant in your life is your love and the way you show it to the ones you hold onto fiercely.

Over the course of 13 years, camera in hand, I’ve witnessed what it looks like to preserve emotion in a thousand different ways.

Young and wild-hearted, documenting life looked a lot like chasing a thrill. Once I truly understood how fast life could be taken away, it solidified what really stands a lifetime once it’s all said and done. I found this to be the photographs left behind from the ones that you love so dearly.

Holding these photographs in your hands, you can hear the memories, feel the power in the lessons you’re reminded of, and can continue to pass these legacies down for an eternity. Reality is, people can only be here for so long, but the ideas that flow from their spirit will live forever.

The photographs you love the most are proof that life changes in the blink of an eye.

REAL LIFE IS YOUR LEGACY-

One day it feels mundane,

and the next you’re grasping for a memory hoping you’ll always remember what it feels like when your soul leaves your body as you’re looking into the eyes of the love of your life,

what it smells like to fall into one of those soul melting hugs,

or what it sounds like when you’re out of breath from one of those much needed, time pausing belly laughs with your favorite humans.

As harsh as time may be, photographs will endlessly bring you right back to those feelings every single time.

Memories are irreplaceable, photographs are priceless, and this is why I’ve dedicated my time on this earth to give you a piece of your time to hold dear forever.

The weight of your life and what matters to you is what I want to place back into your hands so you may pass your legacy down for endless generations.

The middle of my photographic journey is a pivotal one.

From 2019-2022, I dedicated my life as an RN kneeling by the bedside to be a rock for my patients in their darkest days.

But all of the dark days were counteracted by a return to light in some way, shape or form. The stark contrast in what it looks like to live and to die has turned into a very real visual that remains at the fore front of my mind as I document the raw honesty in the life you’re living.

Mess is real, imperfections are what make you who you are, and the willingness to embrace and preserve these things is the fuel to my passion filled fire.

Moving forward into year 6, I’m pouring out every lesson learned at the bedside, from masking my emotions, to molding these precious seconds, minutes, hours into a tangible legacy clearly depicting what matters most when time is nearing an end- who you love and who loves you in return in the ways that make you exactly who you are through every single beautiful imperfection.

memphis film photographer ally perkins scans film photos to digital

I spent my early years stealing my mother’s 35mm film camera leaving her with surprise photos of our German Shepard, Heidi, with my little blonde bangs falling over the lens almost always.

z28 camaro racing down the drag strip at the memphis international raceway in memphis tennessee

At the ambitious age of 16, my outlaw-minded father placed a small Nikon in my hands.

I spent the following summers learning the ends and outs of documenting rock + roll blasting, race car driving adrenaline junkies.

The need for speed, life in the fast lane lifestyle kick started my addiction to chasing the thrill.

As Instagram started to explode in the 2010s, I was introduced to a man named Eric Janssen (@WebRaw) who explored abandoned buildings in Memphis, TN.

The passion for Memphis dwelling in his soul sparked a fire in me as a documentarian.

Leaving a legacy became my mission which is easily portrayed through my intricate method of documenting people with the ones they love the most.

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