Alfred learned photography from his Uncle Ben Harrell. He played baseball when young and was a quaker during World War I. He moved to Rocky Mount NC and started a photographic studio on Main Street after he married. Purchased home on George Street and rented out part of it to an old woman and her nurse.

Later he built a new home at 400 Rose Street, which reportedly cost $2,000 to build. An interesting pice of trivia is the story that Alfred found a floor plan he liked which was for a clapboard house and had the builder change it to brick. However, they forgot to account for the added thickness of a masonry wall so by the time they got to the center staircase there was only 2 feet of space available. As a result the stairs are too narrow to lift furniture up and large pieces must be hoisted through upstairs windows. (I have never been in the house so I have to take my fathers word for this, AF Harrell III)

During the depression, Alfred's bank did not close and he received some rental property across town that he used for cash flow. By 1938, Alfred sent his son Jr. to New York City to learn more about photography. Alfred would continue the photographic studio until an operation on his nose which later sent a blood clot to his brain and ending his life. He ran the photographic studio in Rocky Mount from 1920 through his death in 1942.