18-Year-Old Creates Visual Narratives through Cinematic Portraits

A natural-born storyteller, 18-year-old photographer and filmmaker Alex Currie uses his camera to convey compelling narratives and powerful emotions. Perhaps influenced by his background in motion pictures, each of his images reads as a cinematic frame sliced from a larger scene, leaving the beginning, middle, and end of the tale up to the viewer's imagination. With strong threads of surrealism and fantasy running through his portfolio, the conceptual photographer's striking work is both a visual delight and a fanciful dream to get lost in.

A rising star among the community of young creatives on Flickr, Currie was recognized for his photographic talent as one of the site's 20 Under 20 last year as he neared the end of his 365 project. Despite his young age, he has plenty more accomplishments under his belt, including features in several publications, awards for both videography and photography, and an upcoming solo exhibition in August. In addition to these achievements, Currie has officially conquered high school, and will be leaving his home of Buffalo, NY for the University of Southern California to study film production this fall.

We were lucky enough to ask Alex some questions about his vision and creative process. Read that exclusive interview, below.

You made quite a splash last year with your 365 project. How was your experience diving headfirst into photography as a daily practice?

The 365 is a blessing and a curse. I'll commonly joke about it as any photographer's worst nightmare because, essentially, it is. I took the project on in 2013-14, my junior year of high school, and while balancing school, work, and the SAT's, somehow managed to squeeze in time every day to plan, shoot, edit, and post a photo. For just discovering photography, it was a great practice. The 365 allowed me to learn technical capabilities and develop a style, and though it was difficult, I'm so glad I challenged myself to it. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking to improve or quickly develop a body of work in the photography field. You'll never get better if you don't challenge yourself, and this is a great way to do it.

How has your photography evolved since you started shooting consistently?

In the time since I finished my 365 several months ago, I've been trying to shoot as often as possible, yet it seems the pictures I'm taking need more time. It's difficult to take on and post an entire shoot in a single day due to the increasing intricacy of what I've been photographing lately. I've taken on a few longer projects, done more client work, and everything from commissions in Haiti and Iceland to touring the US as a band photographer this spring with Tenth Avenue North. I guess I'm learning to shoot more emotionally, less defined by presumptions of a specific plan, concept, or type of photography–lately I've just been shooting what I love, the moments that make me feel things, and I think that's the direction I'm headed.

What's your approach to creating an image?

Oh man. You tell me. Yesterday I whipped out my camera and took a quick snap of my best friend shooting off a firework in the parking lot of a seedy motel, and I loved it. Last week I spent two hours in a cave in Iceland dressed as Peter Pan perfecting poses, styling, light, and color, and I loved that equally. It's different for every picture, really. Some just come naturally and some require months of tweaking. There really is no set process for capturing a moment, they just kind of happen.

There's a growing community of young, talented conceptual and fine art photographers on sites like Flickr. While each photographer's portfolio is different, what do you think makes your work unique?

I might photograph things the same way as somebody else, and we might have the exact same color palette, equipment, subjects, and editing process, yet the way we see what we're photographing will never be identical. That's what makes my work unique–the same thing that makes no two pictures the same–how everybody sees things differently. They may be similar, but never identical.

In addition to photography, you're also passionate about the art of film. What's the difference between your approach to each medium, and what can you accomplish with one that you can't with the other?

When I take pictures, I tend to aim to capture a story in a single frame. When I'm directing a film, it's a completely different process because that same story must be drawn out across thousands of frames. Film allows me to go more in depth with an idea rather than just present the surface of it through a still–which, in some cases, works very well, and in others, not so much.

What do you have in store for us in the future?

I'm just wrapping a new series called Neverland about growing up where I play Peter Pan, the boy who never did grow up. That's a 16-part series that I shot in rural Iceland last week and will be exhibiting at 464 Gallery in Buffalo, NY this August. I've got a 30-minute film coming out soon that I shot on the road with Tenth Avenue North, and will be shooting some new projects this summer as well. Oh, and I (finally) graduated high school last Saturday, so I'm pretty happy about that. Now I say my prayers that I miraculously passed my Physics exam.