Boston Wedding & Lifestyle Photography by Alen Abdula, Photography for Inquisitive Minds

Helping out – Hrasnica, Sarajevo.I was born and raised in small country of Bosnia, located in the western Balkans, bordering Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. When I was born, in 1984, my country was proud representative of Winter Olympics, held in Sarajevo. Growing up in mountainous terrain, much of my childhood revolved around exploration of Dinaric Alps, particularly the area of mountain Igman; where I developed strong interest in winter sports. But, my focal interest remained with futbal (soccer). And I was pretty good at it; traveling around the world with national team of Bosnia (junior level), playing at cities like Barcelona, Milan and Dortmund.

Attending Hasan Brkić grade school, in the early 1992, gave me an opportunity to get involved with architectural drawing and art making. However, my school experience ended abruptly as a result of Bosnian Civil War. With constant bombarding, tank shells and enemy bullets found their way, targeting civilians; elderly and children. Most of my dark days were spent in atomic bomb shelter build during the WWII. Days and even months without food or water, we found the way to survive and keep busy by playing board and card games. Playing chess and Remi was my two favorite things to do while in seclusion.

Harsh reality of war was brought to the forefront, when my sister, Mirela Abdula (now Mirela Alexis Conway) was injured during the continual shelling of our city. Injuries sustained left her partially blind and with prosthetic left eye.

My sister and I – Adriatic Sea.During my war-torn childhood, there was not much I could do to keep myself out of trouble and harms way. For this reason, I got my hands on fairly used Nikon film camera just to keep my self busy. Exploration of my new toy did keep me busy and ultimately out of trouble. Even though, I did not know anything about exposure or how to take full advantage of all the camera features, I enjoyed directing it at people and having fun.

Soon after the war ended in 1995 my family decided, because of the economic status in my country, to immigrate to America and start life over. So on July 17th 1997 my family and I initially arrived at JFK airport in New York and soon after took a short flight to Logan airport in Boston. We settled in small apartment in Lynn, north of Boston.

Moving to a different country presented vast amount of obstacles and learning English language wasn’t one of them. But instead, getting used to new culture and understanding how things operate and how things get done was most difficult. English came easy, my sister and I enrolled in Pickering Junior High School where much of our classes alternated between English as Second Language, History and Math.

Right after my first year of U.S education, my family relocated closer to Boston and settled in Revere. There, I attended Revere High School and enjoyed visual arts, music and playing soccer. But most importantly, it is the place where I met my high school sweetheart and future wife, Andrea [Stijakovic] Abdula.

Graduating high school was great accomplishment, but I wanted more. Applying my self to further my education, I was accepted to Emmanuel College, small private school in Boston. There, I revisited my interest in photography and began exploring variety of photography genres. Due to some financial concerns, and $30k price tag for one year of schooling, I concluded that Emmanuel wasn’t feasible and realistic option for me. Because of this, I transferred to University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Where, I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in January of 2008.

Currently, I enjoy living with my lovely wife and working as a wedding photographer. In near future, I am planning and would love to take my passion for photography and turn it into full time gig. As for now, I work as Web & Data Manager at Political Research Associates. Political Research Associates is a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society. PRA exposes movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights.