Alexis Desaulniers-Lea

Photography – Melbourne

I began taking photographs twelve years ago in the local graveyards of Toronto, Ontario Canada. Inspired by music, sound, decay, texture and mood, I gravitated towards subjects that felt intimate and unusual. Photography has fed my desire to bring to light the beauty in the bizarre. Having led a nomadic during my upbringing living in various cities across Canada and in the U.S., the camera became a companion that traveled along side me. Experimenting with film, polaroid, and medium format inside makeshift darkrooms became a passionate pass-time before moving into the digital world of photography only about five years ago. My recent work focuses on live performance cabaret, burlesque and vaudeville. My love of vulnerable expression, music and theatrics is often what fuels me. My other work includes documentary-style landscapes taken in Central America, Europe, Africa, North America and Australia. In the studio, I like to experiment with stylized portraiture influenced by the overt sexuality of magazine culture and textural nature of avant garde fashion and fetish culture. The versatility within photography is boundless. I\'ve been very lucky to have collaborated with so many wonderful people. I\'m immersing myself in the eclectic music, drag and burlesque scene in Melbourne after traveling Australia for 7 months. I am also image curating for a new publication entitled Archer Magazine: The Australian Journal of Sexual Diversity. Cultural, racial, and sexual diversity is very important to me, and I\'ve absolutely enjoyed meeting so many talented photographers across Australia while image curating for Archer.