ALA ORIGINS

We strive to learn about our world

and share stories authentically.

A Life Authentik was founded on a dream to merge our passion for making images with our desire to travel and explore the world. What started as a photographic trip from Alaska to Patagonia has evolved into dynamic multi-media production company.

MIKE JACOBS

Before starting ALA, I had been learning and working in academia for over 10 years, and for me this trip is something between a graduation and a great escape. In that time, I became a technical writer, photographer, sound recordist, lighting technician, and film producer. I managed the media equipment Rental House and production studios at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont with many incredible work study students. There I found a passion for organizational development and systems design. I've produced many indie films, documentaries, TV shows, and commercials.

As a photographer, I spent many years focusing on food, starting with Chef Sandi Earle to make the images for her cookbook My Thirty Year Love Affair with Food in Vermont. While on my way to photograph a Coptic pilgrimage through Egypt and Ethiopia, I met Matt in Istanbul, where we found a common vision and new goals. A little over a year later, we left behind our old lives to find a deeper growth - to own our own time, and to seek those things which are unspeakably beautiful.

MATT EDGAR

Matthew is a director, cinematographer, and photographer focused on advocacy, documentary, and broadcast production. In 2014 he left his corporate career and home country in search of a more meaningful purpose and lifestyle. During these formative years abroad, he developed a passion for still photography. Through his camera he witnessed the incredible diversity of ways to live life on our planet. In 2018 he teamed up with Michael Jacobs to establish ALA Pictures. Now he's using storytelling as a medium to help himself and others connect with, understand, and co-create our shared human experience.

After forming our company in the spring of 2018, we set off on a road trip from Alaska to Patagonia along the Pan American Highway. It was an incredible privilege to even attempt such a journey — one we had worked toward for years.

By 2019, we had reached Alaska and traveled down the U.S. West Coast. We set up a base camp in Bend, Oregon, spending a year building our business, making amazing friends, and exploring the region’s natural beauty.

In March 2020, we moved to Monterrey, Mexico — but within a week, COVID-19 brought us back home. Since then, we’ve rebranded as ALA Pictures and deepened our roots in the Midwest, working on two of Wisconsin’s longest-running TV shows while staying active across multiple mediums and industries.

We no longer live nomadically, but our work and personal journeys continue to take us around the world. Years of shoestring travel, co-adaptation, and deep immersion gave us a strong foundation of communication, creativity, and friendship. As we face an ever-changing world — both together and independently — we remain committed to helping amazing people tell their stories authentically, with a new focus on environmental and social justice.