In today’s society that airbrushes everything and everyone to within an inch of their life, it’s a welcome sight to behold the work of Alexander Schuktuew. His style is refreshingly simple and appears to be effortless. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that the photographer born in Kazakstan recently teamed up with the timeless and classic brand Converse. We recently caught up with Alexander to chat about the collaboration and to see what makes him tick.

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Lola Who: Hi Alexander, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into photography?
Alexander: Hallo Lola! Yeah, I’m a Russian from Karaganda, Kazakstan. My parents moved to Germany when I was four years old.  I do photography because of skateboarding. When we were kids, we started to make videos of ourselves skating and later I began taking photos and working with stills, which is now the main focus of my work.

Lola Who: Can you tell us a little bit about where you’re from and the city where you’re currently living?
Alexander: I’m currently living in Berlin, but I was raised in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, surrounded by gorgeous nature. The German “Reinheitsgebot” (the “German Beer Purity Law”) originated from there.

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Lola Who: How’s living in Berlin influencing your work?
Alexander: Opportunities wherever you look, it’s crazy.

Lola Who: Your photographs at the Converse exhibit are brilliant. Can you tell us about how it was to work with a fashion brand like Converse?
Alexander: Thank you! It was high-end professional and everybody involved supported me so much! Shout out to Sunst-Studio and Maria!

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Lola Who: When you’re doing a photoshoot, are you more methodical, or do you let the subject improvise?
Alexander: I like to try both.

Lola Who: What do you want people to feel when they look at your photographs?
Alexander: I wouldn’t love it as much if I wanted people to feel something. So I would say nothing.

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Lola Who: Do you have a favourite photograph from the exhibition?
Alexander: Yeah, the black dressed lady in the snow.

Lola Who: Is there a dream location or a dream person who you would like to shoot?
Alexander: alive; Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, and dead; Albert Camus.

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Lola Who: What does 2016 have in store for you?
Alexander: It´s been awesome so far!

By Emma Flynn