Photo © Sandy Carson
Hello! I am a photobook consultant, photo editor, writer, and art researcher based in Austin, Texas. I love working with photographers and artists to edit their work into impactful sequences for photobooks, photo essays, exhibitions, contest entries, and portfolios; and advising on editorial elements and presentation of their projects.
Working in publishing, I served as Deputy Art Director at Harper’s Magazine; Art Editor at Oxford American magazine; Senior Photo Editor at National Geographic; and Archival Researcher on the Emmy-nominated PBS NewsHour series Brief But Spectacular, for which I sourced visual accompaniment for interview segments featuring a wide variety of guests. Several artists I pitched to be guests on the show were featured in episodes.
Interviewing artists and writing about their work is a treat, as is speaking to undergraduate and graduate photography students about potential careers in the photo world. I have taught intensive photo editing workshops, juried many contests, and am thrilled when any connection I have made between photographers and photo editors results in a commission.
If you are ready to dive into an edit—whether for a book, organizing your archive, or identifying best images for your portfolio—or want art direction with an ongoing project, email me or fill out the form on my contact page.
alyssa [at] alyssacoppelman [dot] com
UPCOMING
Critical Mass, Photography Contest Juror, August 2026
Victoria Gewirz: Circus Journey, Kehrer Verlag, October 2026: I was photo editor
Review Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM, Portfolio Reviewer, October 2026
PhotoNOLA, New Orleans, LA, Portfolio Reviewer, December 2026
CLIENTS
C3 Presents
Etsy
Knopf Doubleday
Foreign Affairs
Harper’s Magazine
The Intercept
Kris Graves Projects
Mockingbird
National Geographic
Offset
Oxford American
ProPublica
@radical.media
Second Peninsula
Undark Magazine
PHOTO EDITING & ART DIRECTION
Ben Sklar
David Johnson
Ilana Panich-Linsman
Kiliii Yüyan
Kris Graves
Lindsay Blatt
Lisa Elmaleh
Lynsey Addario
Peter Turnley
Preston Gannaway
Sandy Carson
Theo Stroomer
PHOTOBOOKS
Victoria Gewirz, Circus Journey, Kehrer Verlag, October 2026. Photo editor
David Johnson, It Can Be This Way Always, University of Texas Press. Photo editor, design consultant
Preston Gannaway, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Photo editor, designer
Sandy Carson, We Were There. Photo editor, design consultant
Justin Cook, Made in Durham and Tide and Time. Photo editor, project consultant
Alyssa Banta, The Texas Ranch Sisterhood, Arcadia Publishing. Photo editor
Lindsay Blatt and Paul Taggart, Herd in Iceland. Photo editor, designer
WRITING
Oxford American, Michi Meko’s Cosmic Cartography. October 14, 2026
Oxford American, A conversation with Texas artist RF. Alvarez. Fall 2024
Oxford American, Q&A with artist Dianna Settles; and a prologue to the issue. Spring 2024
We Were There: Foreword for a photobook by Sandy Carson
Adobe Create
Feature Shoot
Hatje Cantz's fotoblog
Slate's Behold blog
Vantage
WIRED Photo
PRESS
Lenscratch Mixtape interview with Aline Smithson
PDN Magazine interview with Holly Hughes
Photolucida's Advisory Council
Oxford American’s National Magazine Award for General Excellence
JUROR/CURATOR
New Orleans Photo Alliance, Juror for the Michael P Smith Fund for Documentary Photography, August 2026
UT Austin, Documentary Photography Student Exhibition Juror, 2024
Center Forward at C4FAP, with Christy Havranek
Critical Mass 2014-2022, 2026
The Curated Fridge, 2018
Flash Forward 2015
Lenscratch, The Ides of March: Omens and Predictions
Portraits, A Smith Gallery
Singular/Signature, Center for Fine Art Photography
Slideluck Austin VI
Ben Sklar, solo exhibition, Lower Left Gallery, Austin, TX
PORTFOLIO REVIEWS
Atlanta Celebrates Photography
Denver Month of Photography
Filter Photo Festival
Fotofest Houston
Medium San Diego
New England Portfolio Reviews
PhotoAlliance SF
Photolucida
PhotoNOLA
Review Santa Fe
SlowExposures
SPE South Central Portfolio Throwdown
EDUCATOR/PANELIST
Panelist for Traer Scott’s Atelier II advanced portfolio class’s final review. May 2025
Visiting Lecturer, Texas State University—San Marcos, 2018, 2024
C4FAP Online Workshop with HuffPo’s Christy Havranek, 2022
Critical Business Practices for Photographers, Review Santa Fe, 2021
Visiting Lecturer, Center for Fine Art Photography, 2021
i3 Photo Lecture, School of Visual Arts, 2021
Panelist, Mary Virginia Swanson’s Social Media Strategies for Visual Artists, 2020
Visiting Lecturer, Brigham Young University, 2019
Editing Workshop, PhotoNOLA 2018
Social Media Strategies for Artists, organized by Mary Virginia Swanson, PhotoNOLA 2018
Visiting Lecturer, Texas Woman's University, Department of Visual Arts, 2018
Hixon-Lied Visiting Lecturer, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2017
Visiting Lecturer, Academy of Arts SF: Contemporary Topics in Photography, 2017
Panelist, Unseen Amsterdam, Making Photography Transparent: Q&A for Graduates, 2014