work practice
Distil Ennui was founded by London based photographer Alexander James. Alexander has over 20 years experience in the advertising industry with past clients including the Microsoft Corporation, Peugeot, Hewlett Packard, Samsung, Versace, Shangri-La Hotels, Burj Dubai, Balenciaga, Chanel and Ermenegildo Zegna to name but a few.
With much of his time dedicated to personal and community based voluntary projects working with underprivileged children, the homeless and on environmental and civil liberty projects. These personal projects and the travels involved with them have forged a solid foundation for the artistic direction of his commercial practice.
Alexander regularly exhibits these personal projects, more as an underground event rather than a PR process, taking over any abandoned industrial spaces and out of hours multi-storey car parks mixing large format hung material with projections of his film projects – all of which have taken place as self funded endeavors – seeing this as a cathartic process rather than a critical one.
Excerpt from a recent television interview…..
“All of my personal works without exception are always presented ‘as shot’ without cropping or post production of any kind. I see the process as cathartic rather than a critical one, and this dedication to ‘in-camera’ purity establishes a predominant focal point for my practice.
Even on the most planned shots there are always little accidents. These accidents are what suggest the possibilities of developing the image in a way that I had not thought of.
This allows the images to flow and connect to each other with a sense of grace and simplicity. Rather than appearing precious and overly concerned with aesthetics, the images more evidently describe a life and eye made behind the camera.
As an artist I am always seeking out a less conforming way to explore this conforming life that we all seem to lead, shunning sensationalism in favor of simplicity, I hope I can help my audience rediscover simple emotions.
Today’s art has to unlock the valves of emotions and feeling, by this attempt to record the fact. To do this at the present time, what you need is a profound technical imagination.
My images are not only of the subject, they are also images of myself. When I photograph a subject, for me it is a way for me to crystalise time, a moment in ones existence. Why I have chosen to do this with my life is a mystery.”
FOR IMAGE LICENSING & CANVAS PRINTS VISIT www.AlexanderJamesStockPhotography.com
DISTIL ENNUI STUDIO WEBSITE www.DistilEnnui.com
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