by Yvette Depaepe

Alexandra Fira's portraiture work is very unique, stylish and really stands out. 
She likes to express her deepest feelings in her breath taking photos.  Each one has a strong story and reflects her photographic vision which is to be closer to people. Let's discover this fine artist by wandering in her secret world.

“Nostalghia”

Briefly tell us about yourself, your hobbies and other jobs, Alexandra.
First of all Yvette I want to thank you very much for the opportunity that you gave me to talk about me and also to tell the 1x members a few words about my passion: photography.

I am 35 years old, I was born in Craiova, Romania where I still live right now and I am an amateur photographer. I have graduated the Faculty of Economics and I also have a PhD in the human resources domain.  I manage along with my father our company and I work in the sales area for 13 years. Other hobbies besides photography are reading, traveling and music.

How was your history and life experiences affected your your photography?
I have a lot of pictures of me, since I was a baby until my teenage because my father was also passionate by photography. I grew up together with camera, devices for development, dark rooms and films. I must confess to you that I started taking photos six years ago and since that moment the camera become my best friend. Since then I have attended to many workshops and photography courses. Participating to workshops gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of talented people and to share with them my passion and to learn a lot of new things about this passion.

Which are the most experiences that have influenced your art?
Music influenced me very much, I love listening to music when I take pictures and also when I do the retouching. Another great influence are the movies that I watched, the paintings that I tried to study and also the books that I read. All these made me create my secret world, a world that is reflected in my pictures.

“The bird,1”

What first attracted to photography?
Photography offered me the only way to express my feelings and also helped me to develop myself. Behind all my photos you can find a story, story that is talking about me and about who I am.

Describe your overall photography vision.
As you saw I love very much doing portrait photography that's why I can say that my vision is to be closer to people and through them to show the viewers my mood and my world.

Why are you so drawn by portrait photography?
Since I started taking photography I was drawn only by landscape and portrait photography but now I do only portrait. I like very much this kind of photography because I am attracted by every kind of person. For me every model is a challenge, people are so different and I love this. I think that the most important thing in a photo shoot is the relation that you create with the model. As I think you saw 99% of my subjects are women.

“Maleficent”

“Poisoned Soul”

What generally is your relationship to your subjects matter beyond being an observer?
Most of my subjects are very good friends of mine or people with whom I interact well and who understand what's the message that I want to transmit to the watcher. It is very hard for me to take good photography with a person that I meet for the first time. As in every relationship where things are hard to build the same thing happens in photography, everything is built with efforts from both sides.

Untitled

“That light,3”

What software do you use to process your images?
To process my images I use only Photoshop and Nik Collection, I love the Silver Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro. I always open my images in Capture NX-D. I love very much to process my images in black and white.

Can you tell us more about your work flow?
First of all I open my images in Capture NX-D and after saving them I open all with Camera Raw where I do standard adjustments as lens profiles, I do some corrections regarding contrast, exposure ,clarity and highlights. After all this steps I start working in Photoshop, for portraits I use only the frequency separation for the retouching of the skin and after this I use the Nik Software.

What is the important advice to a beginner portrait photography and how do you get started?
The most important advice that I can give to a beginner in portrait photography is to know very well himself and also to know where he wants to go with photography. We can not do good photography without sacrifice and when I say sacrifice I mean that all the free time that you have must be invested in reading, watching as many photos as possible, many hours spent behind the camera and doing the retouching. The first three years when I started doing photography I was doing a photo shoot every day and in the evening I was spending at least one hour for the retouching.

“Aimer la douleur”

“Fall”

Who are your favorites photographers.
I do not have any particular photographers, however I admire many, especially those who have found their own style. I love very much Henri Cartier Bresson, Helmut Newton and Man Ray.

Is there any specific photo taken by another photograph that has inspired you a lot and why?
Last year suddenly I decided to change my style and I took the decision to work in a specific direction as much as possible.  It happened because of one photograph from Bogdan Bousca that inspired me a lot that moment.  That was what I wanted to see in my pictures.  That moment was a new beginning for me. 

Are there any specific directions that you would like to take your photography in the future or or any specific goals that you wish to achieve?
I have a few projects for the future. This year I want to make an exhibition with my latest works and also I want to try street photography because it is something new to me and a subject very interesting.
I want to evolve and to take this passion to the fullest possible.

Describe your favorites photograph taken by you and why it is so important to you?
It is very difficult for me to give you an answer to this question because I love a lot of my photographs. Very important to me is the first photo published on this site and I remember that I was happy when hearing the news that my I finally got a picture published on 1X and now I am talking about Pink Roses.

“Pink roses”

Very important for me is also the image Regrets. The message of this photos is that sometimes we are our own prisoners and we can not get away from us. We know that we are not on the right path but we can not do something to change this.

“Regrets”

Is there anything else you wish to add and what you think about 1x as a bome base to you?
I my opinion 1x is one of the best photography sites and I am very proud that a part of my photos are published here. When I saw my first photography published here I was very, very happy and very honored.
I want to thank you all the curators and all the staff for the great job that you are doing.

“A.”

“Bird”

“Infection spreading,2”

“Between light and shadow”