Leave Your Brain At Home

Photography by Abel Alexander

Abel Alexander is a Los Angeles based photographer who doesn’t worry about aperture or shutter speed and believes that candid photographs are the only ones worth taking.

Los Angeles, USA

“I grew up a half hour south of Portland, Oregon. The town had the highest density of latinos in the state, which helped keep me centered in my culture & oblivious to the art world. I didn’t know who Warhol was until a few years ago. But one day, at a 2nd-hand shop, I stole a Minolta point & shoot. That moment would have a wild ripple effect on my life. I mean, it landed me in Los Angeles seven years later.

I taught myself how to develop, I read everything about the art, and spent thousands of hours going out and failing. I'm still failing. I don’t consider myself a photographer, but I've picked up a few things over the years. I know what I like in my pictures and I have a fool proof method of getting those results every time; say ‘fuck it.’ I’ve dropped everything I know. I walk around with something concealable and with a flash. That’s it that’s all I need. I see something going on, wait for my moment, fire, and dip. No viewfinder, no composition, nothing, so that the moment is uncompromised. Shutter speed and aperture and all that noise make my head hurt.

People are what matter to me. Candid shots one could never replicate, with the subject completely organic, are the only kind of photograph worth taking. Going out to a busy street is the best practice. Get the negatives, see where you went wrong, learn, go out again and repeat. Every roll is better than the last, especially with a camera that knows you. I choose what camera I'm bringing along based on how i'm feeling. Nine time out of ten it's my Kodak VR35 because I can just leave my brain at home. I need one brain cell to focus on my art, that's it.

My pictures have done a lot for me: free shows, album art, publications, touring with Mac DeMarco, just an overall great excuse to get into places and out of trouble. But it isn’t enough. The goal is having a picture pay my bills, have a picture fund my artistic endeavors, have a picture take me around the world, that kinda thing. For now though, I'm pasting my pictures on light boxes, billboards, the sides of buildings, I’m pasting my pictures everywhere because it's easier than getting them into galleries. Even in a gallery will it ever be enough? No.

But that’s not why I do it. You know those places from childhood you return to as an adult? Getting set back for a second, to an old memory, or smell, or person, or emotion. That's why I do it. Every picture is a moment and it's nice to go back sometimes. Or I'm just afraid of forgetting.”

-Abel Alexander