about me
I'm Alexis and I believe that stories have the power to change the world
This origin story begins, like most, with sticky dancefloors and regret.
The year is 2008. I’m in a dimly lit club, squished in between drunk dancers and couples making out, a singer whose fringe was larger than his skinny jeans spitting into a microphone.
A half-spilled cocktail in one hand, a camera in the other, high heels that make my legs look ridiculously long in a mini-dress, feeling
alive
Like I had never before. Or since.
After untold years* of wandering in the wilderness*,* wondering about what I wanted to do when I grew up — because it was all the adults could think about when you’re 18 — it all became clear.
*(*Roughly 2-ish. *The corridors of an international school in Northern Italy)
This is what I was meant to do.
Who I was meant to become.
The next Annie Leibovitz, shooting rockstars we’d still remember decades after their deaths.
And the wife of one of them, obvs.
When I was little, before I could even read, I used to browse my mother’s fashion magazines looking at the pictures and ads in awe.
I spent my pocket money on school trips buying extra film for my basic camera because I’d run out of space.
I loved beautiful things and creating tangible memories of those I saw. Even if a lot of them were blurry.
I then learnt how to take proper photographs on my father’s old Minolta analogue camera as I grew older, and received a DSLR for my 18th birthday.
I took it out with me to clubs and events, and soon I was getting commissions and photos in the press.
I even assisted on some high profile sets. But nobody around me believed that I could be successful in establishing myself as an artist.
I was told I had not been born rich enough and connected enough for things to ever be possible for me.
So I went to London and then Edinburgh to study History, and then back to London as I got a safe job in marketing, starting a lifestyle
blog as a side creative outlet to keep taking pretty pictures.
During lockdown, I picked up a new hobby: playing a genre of Japanese visual novels called otome.
I was reading a story about a London photoshoot and I could hear it like a daemon on my shoulder: “It could’ve been you”.
Of course I can’t shoot fictional characters (although I can shoot the actors bringing them to life), but that was not the point.
I knew I belonged behind a camera, and it was time I made it happen.
I found Manifestation via To Be Magnetic, and over the year that followed, I worked on myself so I could leave that insecure teenager behind.
I built my first portfolio, which won me a spot on Wishu’s 2022 Top 100 UK Creatives list, and made my debut on the scene.
My aspiration for my photography is to make people feel, and appreciate what it means to be human, in all of its glory and wonder.
Like music makes us feel emotions and how we remember the most important moments of our lives by the music that was playing then. Music and images in my mind always go together.
The most radical thing a woman can do is to want - freely and without
shame
Kasia Urbaniak
MY REALLY OFFICIAL BIO, the TL:DR VERSION
International portrait and editorial photographer and self-proclaimed “Venusian girlie” on a mission to make wealthy artists the cultural norm.
She writes "Kinda Spiritual" on Substack for star-obsessed girlies who feel that it’s totally normal to hang out sipping French75 while talking about the esoteric at a table overlooking Sloane Square.
When not wandering the streets of London with her camera, or planning her move to Japan, she can be found obsessing with Hakuoki.
She was one of Wishu’s Top 100 UK Creatives in 2022.
SUPER FUN
FACTS
NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF
I live for a great little black dress.
They’re more than half my wardrobe and I still buy more when I see one I like
80% of my personality is influenced by watching Gilmore Girls too much growing up (forever #TeamLogan, by the way)
A friend once said that Hakuoki is, for me, “a lifestyle and a religion”.
She had a point.
It could be my specialist topic on Mastermind
I have Italian heritage but I don’t really like pasta. Or espresso. But I would take cicchetti and wine in Venice any day
SUPER FUN
FACTS
NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF
I live for a great little black dress.
They’re more than half my wardrobe and I still buy more when I see one I like
80% of my personality is influenced by watching Gilmore Girls too much growing up (forever #TeamLogan, by the way)
A friend once said that Hakuoki is, for me, “a lifestyle and a religion”.
She had a point.
It could be my specialist topic on Mastermind
I have Italian heritage but I don’t really like pasta. Or espresso. But I would take cicchetti and wine in Venice any day
Your at-a-glance guide to where I stand on all the truly important things.
THE QUIZ
Favorite indulgence
Mint Chocolate
celeb i'd love to meet
Kishou Taniyama of GRANRODEO
Guilty pleasure
Idol Anime
alternate universe job:
Wine Maker
favorite place i've been:
Venice
drink of choice
A French 75, of course! This Tonic template was no coincidence
can't live without
Music (and good food, possibly together)
usually craving
Takoyaki
beach vs mountains
Beach
favorite show to binge
Any show I like. Is there any other way to watch anything?
Your at-a-glance guide to where I stand on all the truly important things.
THE QUIZ
Favorite indulgence
Mint Chocolate
celeb i'd love to meet
Kishou Taniyama of GRANRODEO
Guilty pleasure
Idol Anime
alternate universe job:
Wine Maker
favorite place i've been:
Venice
drink of choice
A French 75, of course! This Tonic template was no coincidence
can't live without
Music
usually craving
Takoyaki
beach vs mountains
Beach
favorite show to binge
Any show I like. Is there any other way to watch anything?
