Aleksandra Kingo

Aleksandra Kingo is a London based Lithuanian photographer and director. Kingo specialises in fashion and still like, concentrating on capturing conceptual narratives, set design and art direction. Her work is feminine, a bit awkward and full of irony. She believes that photography should be personal and she loves the idea of creating any kind of world through her medium.

Most of Kingo's work is based around people and their identities and she gains a lot of inspiration from everyday life as well as popular culture, online platforms, 70s fashion and Wes Anderson movies. Aleksandra's personal style and skills help her show a certain presence in her world, which enables room for expression, depth and great imagery. Her bold, quirky shoots show real attention to detail.

She works a lot on ad campaigns, look books and other commercial fields. When coming up with idea's for new shoots Kingo says to begin with she is constantly making notes or screenshotting images off Pinterest and anything else she comes across on social media, or sketching ideas. With time these idea's naturally form into solid concepts that she recreates in thorough sketches and then once on set she pretty much recreates these in real life - this way everyone o0n set understands her vision and this helps shoots go smoothly.

The models used in her images are mostly used for the purpose of telling a story, just like a still object would. Her images are rarely about the model so she approaches them in almost the same was as she would an inanimate object.

The thing that draws my attention most to Kingo's work is her use of block colours. Most images use very few colours, 3 or 4 max and these colours always aren't quite opposite on the colour wheel, for example yellow and pink or purple and red. I really like this as the colours together aren't quite clashing so it doesn't make the images overpowering but are still powerful enough to make a statement. The use of bare skin aswell adds a really nice medium and creates a focal point.

I love how feminine and girly it all is, she uses alot of pink which automatically strikes me as being feminine but its also really playful and fun; not just the stereotypical 'barbie' girlie. She also uses a lot of green, the two colours together are really refreshing! Despite using the colour green, which isn't stereotypically a 'girly' colour, she makes it feel feminine and natural linking it to natural objects such as florals and food.

Something that makes Kingo's work stand out to me is the use of food in her fashion photography portraits, for example the image with sushi rolls as binoculars - so simple but the introduction of another model behind which you can only see the arms of adds a level of excitement and mystery!

I think Aleksandra Kingo is a really exciting photographer, I love her playful style! I also love that she is not only a photographer but also does set design and art direction, as this has inspired me to look into other elements in the fashion industry! You can tell by the way that she presents herself that she's a really unique and quirky individual and i think her work is really a true reflection of her personality!