Every day, millions of photographs are added to the world’s collection, and we are bombarded with them in printed magazines and newspapers, on huge roadside billboards and online. And yet it is still possible to recognize the work of someone with a real talent.
The picture of Alexandra Schaede that accompanies this interview, for instance. She set it up, chose the location and the lens, set the controls and, since she was the subject, passed the camera to someone else to press the button. She supplied it to us in black and white because she considered that the most effective treatment of the image.
Born and raised in St. Maarten, Alexandra is making her way in the world of professional photography. Now based in Spain, she travels extensively, and a couple of weeks ago she could be found in California, taking pictures at the BNP Paribas tennis tournament in Indian Wells.
The tennis connection is significant because her original ambition was to play professionally. She was a big fan of Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic and spent countless hours honing her skills and fitness before eventually deciding it wasn’t for her as a career.
After finishing high school at Learning Unlimited, she studied sports management in Amsterdam, but didn’t enjoy the business side of it and at that point photography presented itself as what she wanted to do,
“I had always loved photography,” she says. “But I hadn’t seen it as something I would pursue.”
But pursue it she did, with a one-year intensive course in New York. With the help and blessing of a very supportive family, Alexandra was on her way.
“I got my first professional camera when I was 19,” she says. “My Dad had always had a good camera that I used to use, but now I had a professional Canon Mk 3 with three lenses.”
Photography being so reliant on equipment, at this point Alexandra talks a bit about why she uses Canon (“My dad had a Canon so I was used to them and I’m comfortable with them”), but concludes that although equipment is very important, “It’s the eye in the end.”
Having said that, she then drools over a 400mm 2.8 lens that is new to the market. For the recent tennis assignment, she rented one for two weeks (they cost $11,000 to buy) and it seems the quality she appreciates in it most is that it is comparatively lightweight, at four pounds rather than its predecessors’ eight pounds or more.
“That’s really important because you’re running around all day with two cameras. This was my third year at the BNP Paribas tournament. The first year I borrowed a 200mm lens from another photographer and then I bought one, but this year I really wanted to try this new one, and it’s amazing. The quality, the light, I got some beautiful shots of Federer, Nadal, I’m really excited about those…”
Sports photography is not all that interests this enthusiast, though. She is equally happy indoors.
“I love natural light,” she says, “but I also like controlled light, because you can be really creative with it.” Her website www.alexandraschaede.com backs this up, with some stunning shots in various styles.
There is a practical aspect to consider, too: earning a living. In Spain Alexandra takes commercial assignments and portraits, and will do the occasional bit of wedding photography, purely to pay the rent and enable her to do the more appealing projects.
Her first published work was for the German magazine Sports Bild, who bought her pictures of Rafael Nadal and top women’s tennis player Angelique Kerber. She’s a young woman on the rise, establishing her reputation and making connections.
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