.jpg) Neil Alexander was born in Glasgow in 1970 and raised in the suburbs of Manchester where he has lived for over 30 years. Neil spent many years expressing his artistic talents through DJing be it in clubs or supporting touring bands (see below for a few sample mixes). Fortunately for the photographic fans among us, the pitter patter of tiny feet forced him to resign from his career with the 1s and 2s in 2003, and he resumed his photography with unbriddled passion. After many years shooting with assorted film cameras, he embraced digital photography in 2006, though still shoots regularly with a Hasselblad medium format camera.
As you will see from the work on this site, Neil makes landscape photographs, be they rural or urban, and portraits. He is also heavily involved in street & social documentary photography. Fabrizio is available for commissions, and some of the work displayed here is available for exhibition. Please use the details here to contact the photographer. |
Artist Statement
If I were to attempt to categorise my style, I would consider myself a landscape and social documentary photographer. I feel that I am in a fortunate position to be in a scenario where I can see the best and worst of both worlds. Living on the edge of a large metropolis fulfills my itch to witness the grey, drab, ordinariness of a city life and yet I am able to juxtapose this with the beauty of nature that lies only a few miles from my doorstep.
For me, the city can mean two things; it can denote drudgery and banality, or it can signify vivaciousness and life. To capture people living out their daily rat race, one requires the skill to be able to meld into the background, yet not be too unobtrusive so as to be unable to capture the moment. Maybe it's a bit nosy, a tad voyeuristic, but essentially it's in our nature as human's to act this way. It's in our self-preservative nature to want to know what the other man is doing.
The countryside on the other hand can offer tranquility and solitude, where time passes at one's own pace, and beauty is all around. The desire to stand on one's own in the middle of a field miles from home at ridiculous hours, come rain or shine and the ability to capture the Earth's true personality and character is to experience the phenomena of nature and requires an openness unlike any other photographic field.
Every image I capture as a photographer has an expressive or narrative intent. I am captured by a line, a shape, a form, a colour or a moment, be it one that I've created, or one that I merely stumbled across, and I need to convey my feelings about these in a photograph. Or I am subsumed by the desire to narrate an individual or a group's story. To tell of their woes and mis-fortunes or their gains and successes, to inform as to their status and intent in this life.
The contrast between the city and the countryside, and the hunger to express and narrate provides me with sufficient inspiration and material to have a never ending list of projects and ideas.
Thus far, I consider myself a "barely" professional photographer, in such that I have done "paying gigs". However as I have enjoyed photography immensely as an art form for many years and I have a need not to lose the desire, I am quite content with my current status as a "slightly" pro.