Over ten years as a professional photographer, Alex has worked with artists from contemporary choreographer Russell Maliphant to Game of Thrones actress and contortionist Pixie Le Knot, as well as covering commercial photography. This project takes a more intimate approach. Inspired by conversations with female friends, Alex has produced a series of portraits of women across the UK to celebrate their body shapes and interrogate the pressures placed upon them by society to adhere to dominant beauty standards. Women in the UK undergo around 25,000 cosmetic surgery procedures every year, according to the British Association Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. The most common of which is breast enlargement. It's a trend that can be traced back to the early 2000s, when reality TV, glamour modelling and popular culture helped popularize an aesthetic that combined slim physiques with large breast implants. Although the popularity of that supersized look has waned in recent years, the pressure on women to have so-called "perfect" breasts remains. In his portrait series "Natural Beauty", Alex confronts the pressure placed on women to change their appearance in order to feel attractive. Each woman in the series shows herself at her most natural, wearing little to no makeup and simple, loose-fitting clothing. She faces the camera directly, as a sign of confidence, or perhaps a provocation toward the viewer, as if to say, "I love my body as it is."

SELECTED – Royal Photographic Society #164, 2023 – Portrait

Natural beauty. Selected – RPS International Photography Exhibition #164, 2023
A woman with black hair, wearing an unbuttoned white shirt and blue jeans, standing barefoot in front of a window with greenery outside.
A young woman with shoulder-length brown hair sitting on a pink cushioned chair near a large window, wearing beige pants and an open white shirt with no top underneath, indoors with wooden flooring and cream curtains.
Young woman with long brown hair sitting cross-legged on a black chair, with an open white shirt and blue jeans, in a room with blue curtains and white sheer curtains with blue floral patterns, natural light coming through the window.
A woman standing in front of a glass door, partially dressed in a white shirt and black pants, with a tattoo visible on her side, inside a room with a plant on a windowsill and a pink cushion on a wooden chair.
A woman sitting on a pink chair near a large window, partially dressed in a white shirt and black pants, looking at the camera.
A woman standing indoors in front of a glass door with blue curtains, wearing jeans and an open white shirt, with tattoos on her arms and no shirt underneath.
A young woman standing barefoot indoors in front of large glass doors, wearing jeans and an open white shirt revealing a tattoo on her lower abdomen, with her hands resting on her hips.
back