Allan Douglass Coleman is an independent American critic, historian, educator, and curator of photography and photo-based art, and a widely published commentator on new digital technologies.
Background
Ethnicity:
His parents were of Russian and Polish descent on the side of his father and Scots on the side of his mother.
Allan Douglass Coleman was born in New York City, New York, United States.
Education
Coleman majored in English literature obtaining a BA from Hunter College in the Bronx, New York (1964). In 1967 he completed an MA in the same subject and in creative writing at San Francisco State College.
Career
He was holding several positions in New York City: he has been contributing editor for Camera 35 since 1976, vice-president of the Photography Media Institute since 1977, photography instructor at New York University's Department of Film and Television since 1978 and since 1979 he has also been on the faculty of the New School for Social Research, where he had taught from 1969 to 1971. Before that he worked as a columnist for the New York Times (1970-74) and the Village Voice (1968-73).
A. D. Coleman specialized in “freelance critical writing on photography directed toward a general audience, with specific pertinence to photographers, photography teachers and students and educators in all fields."
He was named one of The Top 100 People in Photography by American Photo Magazine' in 1974'.
Membership
He has been a member of SPE since 1972. In 1976 he received an NEA Art Critic's Fellowship and, in the same year, founded and organized a conference on photography criticism.