Photo: Stan Schnier
Alyson Denny makes abstract photographic images of light.
Denny’s moving images were featured in the inaugural screenings for Off the Wall @ 725 Ponce, the largest outdoor screen in the Southeast. She has also been commissioned to create moving images for two private residences in NYC. Her moving image, Half & Half & Honey, was purchased for permanent display in the lobby of Radian, a residential tower in Boston. In 2025, Atlanta Contemporary presented her first solo museum exhibition of moving images.
Her abstract photographs have been widely exhibited and reviewed in the New Yorker and the New York Times. One image was featured on the cover of the fifth edition of the textbook Exploring Color Photography.
Since working at the American Repertory Theater during college, she has periodically worked on lighting and projections for live theater. Since 2008, Denny has been a member of the Joshua Light Show, creating improvised projections live for musicians including Terry Riley, Lou Reed, John Zorn, MGMT, and Oneohtrix Point Never at venues including the Hayden Planetarium and Lincoln Center. In 2024, she performed a live mix of clips from her moving images to Sam Cohen’s music at The Orpheum in Saugerties, NY.
Denny studied Physics and Filmmaking at Harvard. Her thesis film, Saturday Afternoon, was awarded summa cum laude and the Hoopes Prize. She is currently on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, NYC, where she teaches Light Lab, a course she designed exploring the artistic potential of experimental lighting in photography and video.