Alexa has collected shoes from people she doesn’t know in order to reimagine their lives and personalities from her own perspective. The work makes use of the suggestive metaphor to visualise who the person might be. One of Alexa's favourite quotes is from the heartfelt movie Forrest Gump. "You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes." This sparked the idea of identity and the ability to represent someone through a portrait of just their shoes.
The persona that the lighting creates and Alexa’s own interpretation has given them a new personality. For example a subtle spotlight symbolises someone who loves being the centre of attention and has a very outgoing personality. Juxtaposing a pair of boots with contrasting lights represents a gentle soul who is perhaps scared of their own shadow. To combat her own insecurities she decided to climb into other people’s shoes and interpret how she would picture them while at the same time tackling her own fear of judgement.
Alexa's main influence for this project is the modernist Irving Penn and his stylistic and dynamic still life Noir film photography. This also reinforced her love of the still life style of advertising photography and she incorporated similar traits in this series as well as experimenting with some different lighting styles to add a more filmic element. Using an advertising style with a clinical background really showcases the shoes and all the marks and dirt on them. This contradiction shows up every detail and emphasises the life of the shoes and its wearer.
