by Diane Alter
Martha’s Vineyard is an artistic island, offering visitors and locals a variety of gems from artists, sculptors and shutterbugs, including captivating photos from award winning, globetrotting photographer Donalexander Goss.
Goss has been traversing the world for more than 50 years, snapping photos as he goes. When not traveling, Goss hangs up his camera strings in his Oak Bluffs studio.
Blessed with an innate skill to fully capture a scene, Goss makes you want to enter it. His photos remind you of how fleeting nature is, how precious life is, the joy of work and play, and why we must relish it all.
Goss succeeds in the most important element of a good photograph: the ability of the photo to communicate with the viewer. His photos tell a story via composition, lighting, and most importantly its subject matter–whatever the subject.
Goss’s extraordinary talents have thrust him into the national spotlight. Requests to exhibit in cities around the world, including Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Heidelberg and Stuttgart, Germany, and Washington, D.C., come frequently.
His photographs have appeared in Kitchen and Bath Design, Forbes Magazine, Heart and Soul Magazine, The Boston Business, Journal, The Boston Globe, The Bay State Banner, MV Times, the Mass State House, as well as gracing CD covers. Community newspapers share his work whenever he in in town.
When not behind the camera, Goss lectures, teaches class for the Professional Photographers of America, and participates in debates on photography all over the country.
Closer to home, as president and owner of Goss Photography, Goss lends his services to the Massachusetts communities— something he has done for more than 30 years.
Those services have led to numerous community awards and national recognition, such as Outstanding Young Man in America.
A nomination from Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as a Black Achiever is one of Goss’s prized achievements. While at the MBTA, Goss documented “The State of Repair” for the Secretary of Transportation. The documentary included an extraordinary photo exhibit of the entire state’s transportation system and was presented to the U.S. Congress. The exhibit resulted in a substantial grant to upgrade the state’s transportation system.
His work for the government continued with a stint at FEMA. While working at FEMA, Goss upgraded and computerized their systems making it easier to locate and retrieve historic data.
His historic images of the Martha’s Vineyard Freedom Trail were selected for the first exhibit of newly opened Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank. If Donalexader Goss’s life could be summed up in a photo it would be still life. His photos are of life that resonates long after the click of the camera.
For more information on Goss and his work, email gossphotography@gmail.com
