Alexandra Lethbridge
Alexandra Lethbridge was our first goat lecture who undertook her talk through google meet. It was a really weird experience to be in a virtual room with my classmates, learning from a professional photographer and her life experiences. During her talk, Alexandra talked about her early life, being born in Hong Kong and moving to the UK when she was 10, Alexandra always found peace when travelling the world. Alexandra graduated from the Winchester school of art where she studied Graphics Design combined Photography, and how this really helped shape the creator she is today. For me, I was really impressed with how after university, Alexandra sold everything she had except her camera and moved to New York for 6 months, with the plan to work for different publishers and just create images while she had the time. This is something I would love to do, I am already looking at flats in Boston, Vancouver and Munich. Unfortunately, Alexandra really struggled with creating work in New York, the two contacts she had fell through and she was stuck earning the minimum for the whole time she was there. On one of the last nights in the city, Alexandra attend a talk by Joel Meyerowitz where she waited until the end talk to him. Meyerowitz recognised she English accent and told her to speak to his studio manager, and from their her contacts grew and Alexandra went on to become a studio assistant for a few weeks. Alexandra commented that without this conversation with Joey, her career would not have taken off as well as it has done, and how she owes a lot to him.
Another project Alexanra showed us was completed in Arizona, all shot on medium / large format, “Lay Lines” is based of magnetic lines found in the Earths surface, and questioning if you can feel an energy from these invisible lines. This project really reached out to me because I am currently documenting a virtual American landscape, the sky, cars and colours are very similar to this “Lay Lines”. The idea behind documenting something you can see compared to making images in a virtual game is really interesting to me, I will be sure to include this project of Lethbridge’s in my Final Major Project.
Alexandra went on to talk about her more recent work, exhibitions and archival image fill the majority of her current portfolio. I really connected to her project titled “Other Ways Of Knowing” which looks at ideas of deception, misdirection and visual truth. Lethbridge spent a long time in the process of making sure the images read correctly on the wall, and using creative ways to draw the viewers in. This project turned quickly into an exhibition, including her own images archival and even some optical illusions, which it think is a really interesting way to display work in a space. Perhaps we could use some of these ideas in our exhibition next year.
Talking about her lecture to peers the following day, we all agreed just how captivating Alexandra’s talk was, even through the technical difficulties of google meet, it was very clear to see just how passionate she is about creating and share work. It is a really big shame we did not get to formally meet, as I would have loved to show my work physically and talk to her in depth about her work created in the USA. Lethbridge has really encouraged me to take a step forward in my life and move to another country, create work and meet as many people as possible! My girlfriend and I have both agreed we do not want children till late 20’s / 30’s, so the time is mow to explore the world and MAKE WORK.