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Alen Palander
Alen Palander (May 5, 1990) is an Iraqi-Canadian photographer and creative director. He is well known for his moody, story telling photographs. His passion for architecture, traveling, photography, and filmmaking has brought him into a successful career.

Early Life and Education
Palander was born on May 5,1990 and raised in Iraq. Him and his family decided to move to Canada when he was 6 years-old. His family thought Canada would be the perfect place to live because this country was very neutral. At a young age, he traveled many times with family. He believes that staying in one place isn't meant for him, and the world is meant for everyone to learn and appreciate new things. While traveling, his dad bought him a his first camera. He appreciated photography right away, but didn't think it would be a big part of his future. Architecture was something that he was passionate about, because of always traveling and admiring the buildings. Since he had interest in architecture, he thought about pursuing it and become an architect. Palander loved photographing architectures. When he shows his photos to his friends and family, they thought that his work was amazing.

He later started his life long passion for architecture and design at University of Waterloo : The School of Planning, in Urban Design and Planning. While pursuing his passion, photography became his hobby. After he graduated, he started his Masters in Architecture at the University of Toronto. Palander didn't stay long and dropped out of the program to pursue his passion full time.

Career
Palander started photography as a hobby, until his friends and family suggested him to make it as a career because of how great he is. He changed his career to photography, started posting his work on Instagram, and worked for brands and clients. While Palander was working for brands and clients, he thought of directing, because he had different ideas of how industry should be and how products should be displayed. He grew as a photographer and filmmaker, and found many people admiring his work. The amount of followers kept growing and currently, he has half a million on that social media platform. Later on, he made a Youtube account on 2015, which is here, and posted his tutorial videos there. On Youtube, he currently have 121,000 subscribers. Social media has helped him grow his business by people discovering him and wanting to work with him, that's how he worked with brands. The brands that he worked with so far are: Air Canada, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Canon, and etc. Not only he worked with brands, but he created his own studio, Palander Studio, that started on 2017.

Achievements

 * 1) TEDx Talk at Wilfred Laurier University
 * 2) Arts & Business Exchange Conference (Panel and Workshop)
 * 3) House of VR (Empathy Series - Panel)
 * 4) University of Waterloo Stratford (Accelerator Centre) Lecture and Workshop

Press and Publications

 * 1) Mercedes-Benz - Japan Explorers, 2019
 * 2) YSF Magazine, 2019
 * 3) Venque, 2019
 * 4) Sidra & Co, 2019
 * 5) Lexus USA - National Parking, 2018
 * 6) Peace Collective - Canadian Built Series, 2018
 * 7) Canadian Geographic: Ultimate Canadian Instagram Photos, 2018
 * 8) Canadian Geographic Magazine, 2018
 * 9) The Globe and Mail, 2018
 * 10) Life on Instagram, 2017
 * 11) Wildside: The Enchanted Life of Hunters and Gatherers, 2016
 * 12) We Day - Toronto, 2015

External Link

 * 1) Alen Palander website
 * 2) YFS Magazine article about Alen Palander
 * 3) Alen Palander - Instagram
 * 4) Alen Palander - YouTube

Reference

 * 1) http://alenpalander.com/about
 * 2) https://yfsmagazine.com/2019/03/26/toronto-photographer-alen-palander/