Alex Stoddard is an art photographer living and working in Los Angeles, California. He was born on November 15, 1993 in Jacksonville, Florida and raised primarily in rural Georgia.
Alex spent much of his early life alone exploring the woods behind his family home. He considers this isolation as well as the influence of social media to be major factors in his decision to start taking selfportraits at the age of 16. Early on, he would sneak his mother’s point-and-shoot camera away into the forest and experiment in secrecy, fearing the embarrassment he would face if his family and friends knew what he was doing. He was inspired by the way he could use photography to escape his mundane life by putting on costumes and posing as different characters in his made-up worlds. The blank canvas of the human body and its connectedness to nature became a major factor in his images.
Soon, Alex began a “365 Project”, in which he created a new image every day for a year and posted it online. The project consisted mostly of creative portraits he would take of himself or his friends and sisters after school and on the weekends. During that time, his following grew to tens of thousands, and his work spread to publications worldwide. By the project’s end, he was shooting for high-profile clients like Universal Records and was flown to New York City as an honoree of Flickr’s Inaugural 20 Under 20 Awards, honoring the best young photographers in the world. Alex continued creating personal work through the end of his high school studies while simultaneously juggling interview requests and client work. After graduation, he relocated to Southern California and immediately began showing his work alongside the likes of artists such as Mark Seliger and Shepard Fairey. He has since exhibited pieces in Paris, Brussels, and Luxembourg.
Alex is completely self-taught, relying upon his eye and natural instinct when creating. His work is highly influenced by art history in the digital age. It explores concepts of fantasy and surrealism within portraiture, utilizing tasteful digital manipulation in order to realize an otherwise impossible vision. His style is characterized by simple compositions that frame more meaningful universal themes.