This week, we get to know Alex Istudor, Photographer and Extended Hours Supervisor with Library Services. Alex's photography work is currently on display in the Vice-Chancellor Principal's Corridor, featuring a series of photographs depicting our beautiful Egham campus.
1.) Tell us more about your ‘Royal Holloway People’ photography project that you are currently working on?
Rhul People – as I like to call it in a shorter version – represents my main photography project at the moment and it consists of portraits of people connected to Royal Holloway (staff, students, alumni, but as you can imagine, a lot of students). I started the project in June 2023 and have been doing it consistently since then. I took portraits of around 40 people so far, all connected in various capacities to our beautiful university. I tend to take a lot of photos with each subject participating and then I post at least 3 sets of 10 photos on my Instagram account with each one of them. That way every person gets a chance to be featured in a more extensive way. As an informal rule, I aim to use locations on campus or the local area when taking these portraits so that I connect people to various locations within our campus and the Egham area.
2.) How did you first become interested in photography?
I always had an interest in the power of images, light and the aesthetic dimension especially through my background and studies in theatre directing. I initially bought a camera in 2019 before going on a trip to Cuba. And for 2-3 years I only used my camera while going on holydays, so I wouldn’t call that a serious photographic commitment. But something changed during the pandemic – I was still based in the library as one of the few services of the university open in person during that time and the campus felt so empty and it allowed me absorb a bit more its quietness and beauty and pay attention to its premises in a whole different way during that strange time of our lives. And I started initially by taking loads of photos in 2021-2022, mostly in black and white, featuring Founders building, its unique architecture, the dynamic between that historical building and some more modern ones such as the Emily Wilding Davison building. And then in June 2023 I moved towards portraits work and that’s when I started the RhulPeople photo project.
3.) Some of your work is now on display in the Principal’s Meeting Room, in our Founder’s Building – how were these photographs chosen?
Yes, it’s something I really value and I am grateful for. It was a bit of a lucky coincidence to be fair. Julie Sanders, the (then) new Vice-Chancellor Principal, and her admin team were looking for some photos/artwork to display in the Principal’s Meeting Room and the Library’s Culture Team was involved in this and they were also aware by that point of my photography work and artistic activities. The Library’s Culture Team asked me to put together a selection of my photography work related to the college (both portraits of people and architecture/campus photos) for the principal to take a look and she really loved them and selected a few of them to go on display in that room and then I team up with Anya Eastman from the Culture Team to select a few more.
4.) What inspires you the most about our campus and our community?
It’s a rather unique, gorgeous and photogenic campus, something you probably see featured in movies or idealised versions of student life. It feels a bit like a world on its own and it has a very interesting history too. It’s also an extremely diverse and international community of people. As someone who moved to the UK from Romania, I always appreciated that international and migration dimension of people connected to Royal Holloway. Even in terms of my RhulPeople project, I am extremely lucky to be able to photograph people from all over the world. I think this combination of two main elements - a place that’s almost like a poster version of what people think when they talk about British universities, their tradition and heritage dimensions, plus its international community of students and staff (part of a modern and globalised world) - is what’s really driving my creative inspiration. Most of my photos aim to explore the dynamic between these dimensions one way or another.
5.) Do you have a favourite photograph taken on our Egham campus? Why is it you favourite?
There’s quite a few of them, but I really love some photos of Founders taken in 2022 and featuring one of the rare instances when we had snow. And I took those in black and white and they simply look incredible with that blanket of snow. There’s something magical about them, like from a fairy tale. You can see them on my website. The fact that it snows so rarely in this part of the country only makes them more special and appealing, I think.
6.) Where can students view the rest of your photographs of Royal Holloway and our Egham campus?
I have a website site which provides a more curated glimpse into my photography work, and I think it really does justice to the actual photos, especially when accessed from a laptop/pc. I invite you to check it out: alexistudor.myportfolio.com
But I also post very regularly on my Instagram account in case you would like to be updated with the latest photos from my RhulPeople photo project, so feel free to connect there: @istudor.alexandru
7.) How can students get involved in your project?
It’s a two way street now – I sometimes approach people I would like to photograph but I also get approached by some people who are interested to take part and I tend to always try to commit to it, even if sometimes it takes me a few good months to get to the point of photographing a person (I juggle a lot of things in terms of photography work, job, freelance theatre directing, hence I have very limited time). I use Instagram for any communication related to photography work.
8.) How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
Most of my free time goes into following my main artistic passion and interest which is theatre directing. Specifically, thinking, planning and pitching potential shows to various theatres. But I love dedicating some time to photography and to travelling (although I end up taking loads of photos when doing that, hence always increasing my photography workload).