Photojournalist Chloe Anderson recently joined Peninsula Clarion staff as a reporter, covering central Kenai Peninsula news and events.
Currently based in Juneau, Anderson has previously written and done photography for the Juneau Empire, Colorado Sun, Boulder Weekly, Kansas Reflector, Climbing magazine, Associated Press, and more. In 2023 she was awarded second place for Best Online Photo Series/Gallery (Division VII) in the Kansas Press Association’s Awards of Excellence.
Born and raised in Kansas, Anderson’s passion for photography came directly from her passion for outdoor adventuring.
“When I was in high school I started rock climbing, which is super paradoxical, but that just kind of changed everything for me,” she said in an Oct. 30 interview. “So I was working throughout high school and I bought a camera, and I started travelling pretty much anywhere I could, and I was taking photos and writing and thought ‘Wow, I really like this combination of things.’”
Anderson earned her associate degree while in high school and continued her college journey at the University of Kansas, where she double majored in film and media production and journalism and minored in photography. While there, she also freelanced for the Lawrence Times, which she described as a grassroots nonprofit publication, and was the multimedia editor for her campus newspaper.
After graduation, Anderson wrote for the Kansas Reflector, which is the Kansas outlet for States Newsroom, the largest state-focused nonprofit news organization in the U.S. with reporting from every state capital. She also wrote for the Colorado Newsline, the States Newsroom outlet for Colorado, based in Denver.
“I moved to Colorado right after I graduated, and I started working primarily for Colorado Newsline, but (also) the Colorado Sun, Climbing magazine, Alpinist — a lot of outdoor publications,” she said. “My first big article was in Climbing magazine, and then from there I took that to different editors and said ‘I can write and I can take photos, can I work for you?’
“It started to dawn on me that there are ways that I could write and report that matter more than just being like, ‘Oh, look how cool this person is for doing this thing in rock climbing.’ There’s more important topics to cover in the world.”
Anderson arrived in Juneau in 2024, after a fellow photographer told her about a naturalist photography guide job that he himself had been doing.
“He told me, ‘Those are the best summers in my life — you get to teach people about Southeast Alaska, you get to teach them how to take photos. It’s awesome. Do it now, otherwise you never will,’” she said. “So I did that for the first time two summers ago, and I just completely fell in love with Juneau.”
This past summer, Anderson also began writing a weekly wildlife column for the Juneau Empire.
“I really enjoy writing about animals, wildlife conservation, environmental issues,” she said. “I like features, I like writing about people who are doing cool stuff. But there’s really nothing I don’t enjoy writing about.”
On writing for the Clarion, Anderson said that she felt like there were a lot of things happening that she found interesting.
“I’ve never lived anywhere that has an ocean, so there are things happening on land but also in the water. I just love it here,” she said. “I love the people … Everybody is so knowledgeable about so many different things that I had never even heard of before I moved here.
“I feel like being a journalist is honestly just an excuse to get out and talk to people and hear about the things that they’re doing. You get to stay informed and keep people informed, because that’s your job, but you also have a reason to go out and meet all these cool people and learn all these cool things.”
Learn more about Anderson and see her photography at www.chloeandersonphotography.com/, and find her stories in the Peninsula Clarion weekly paper and online.
