“…you’re always trying to find your individual look and feel,” relates the flattered Alex Drewniak to the Phoblographer in an interview when asked about how she keeps her photos looking unique. It’s something that she’s struggled with for years. “…We are in such an oversaturated space; there are so many brilliant photographers; how do you be unique and own what you do? It is hard to not constantly compare yourself to other people in the industry, especially with our ever-growing digital landscape.” These days, she’s been doing a whole lot of trusting her gut.
This article is presented in partnership with Leica. All images by Alex Drewniak. Used with permission. Please follow her on Instagram. Please also check out her Leica profile. All images were shot on the Leica SL3. For more insights, please check out our review of the camera.
Alex Drewniak: The Wild Child
Alex refers to her photography as a practice of staying in her lane. Her ideas come from life experience. This means that she likes getting out and trying new things that make her feel uncomfortable or being in compromising positions. She thinks this is part of what makes her wild, rogue, and hold her edge. “I’ll jump a fence, or sneak my way into something if I’m sure the lighting is better just around the corner.” Despite this, she takes calculated risks and does a lot of her own planning and research for the shoots she does.
For Alex, it’s about diving right into whatever is bringing her joy and immersing herself in her subjects. When asked to provide us with 5 words that describe her work, she said:
- REAL.
- SOUL.
- RICH.
- HONEST.
- PROUD.
Choosing the Leica SL3
Coming from a classical music background, she got into photography at age 18 and began photographing music. With her Leica SL3 in hand, she still shoots lots of music to this day. Also in her camera bag are the Leica 24-90mm, 14-24mm, 50mm F2 Apochromatic SL, Leica SF flash, a Profoto X Leica trigger, and the Profoto B10X plus, along with an ARRI constant light.
I don’t go so hard to alter an image where there is the potential to take away from its original integrity. Our world needs to remain honest and real, I don’t support heavy-level editing.
Alex Drewniak
When looking at Alex’s work, we can tell that she’s very particular about light. That’s why she chose the Leica SL3. “For me its all about the dynamic range, and colour depth,” she states. “You can not compare it to any other. The way I read light, and the way the camera allows me to lean into those moments feels second to none, its an extension of me.” This is seen throughout her photographs.
From the perspective of a low-vision/legally blind man, you can easily see Alex’s obsession with being particular about the light in her scenes. In fact, she pays attention to the ambient light when she first walks into a room. It can be the light fixtures, sun, the windows, and the color temperature. Indoors is where she has so much more control. When she’s at a festival or backstage at fashion week, it’s not the case.
People are sometimes so afraid to document the real mood of a moment. I love the less obvious, the darker ones.
Alex Drewniak
It goes without saying that there’s a very human element to Alex’s photographs. Yet, at the same time, she finds AI so incredibly intriguing. Alex loves innovations and how AI can help with the automation of things. She’s even mistaken AI images for real photographs before. While she’s all about advancements and innovations, she’s also very big on transparency. To that end, she wants that to be put forth with images made by generative AI. Alex uses it to clean up a backdrop or blemish every now and again — but she jokes that she’s not using it to make unicorns appear.
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
