Photographer Mauricio Alejo uses everyday objects to create gravity-defying arrangements within his apartment, staging curious interventions and acrobatic feats on his kitchen counters and filing cabinets. Working within the confines of his living space has allowed Alejo to produce ideas as they come, rather than attempt to find the perfect backdrop for his spontaneous compositions.
“I didn’t always like the apartments I was living in, or better put, I didn’t always like the way some of the places I lived translated into the image,” explained Alejo. “They were somehow random and uninteresting, but I knew that it was just natural to photograph right where the ideas were conceived, besides if I started looking for the ‘right’ place to shoot it was going to be a never ending story.”
Mexican artist and photographer Mauricio Alejo has spent the last 16 years of his career taking everyday items and transforming them into peculiar objects for his photographs.
The ongoing photography series includes images of stairs hanging from the ceiling, napkins dangling off of table edges and books with pages sticking up into the air. Sometimes through subversion, other times through interesting product placement, Alejo makes his household items feel psychologically uncanny for the viewer. Seeing objects in unusual environments or in unnatural dialogues with each other, individuals are forced to question their dogmatic opinions on space and meaning. With these photographs, Alejo hopes to “bring them [the items] into a new narrative which doesn’t obey their functionality.”
Using apartments he has lived in as the backdrop for his work, the images become a physical collection of his personal memories. They exist as an autobiographical record of Alejo’s time living in New York as a burgeoning photographer. While on their own, these everyday items may have no inherent beauty or appeal, they become fascinating in their randomness and absurdity.
This immediacy of ideas has become embedded in the photographer’s practice, even with Alejo’s recent move towards studio-based photography. You can see more of his works on his website and Instagram.
