Meet Alim – a true Londoner, photographer and founder of Alimagery.
I met Alim on March 1st 4 years ago. I was giving a brief interview for the university magazine, and he was the photographer in charge. He joked about my “wedding dress” hung on the curtain track in my room, I joked back about his colourful Ted Baker shirt – he loves a good pattern, and this is how our friendship was born. A few months later, he messaged me to shoot together, I agreed and I haven’t changed my profile picture since then.
As a person who tends to feel extremely uncomfortable in front of the camera and has no idea what to do with his face, let alone his body, I can guarantee you one thing – you WILL feel like you’ve been modelling your whole life. We laughed, he made me dance, I ran around barefoot (proof can be found at the end of the interview).
For many photographers, the end result is all that counts. However, for Alim letting his client’s character and personality shine is what matters the most. His work is a celebration of self-love, individuality and the most magical city – London (not only because of Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station).
Tell us about your first introduction to photography. What drew you into this world?
(Alim laughs) I was a nerd back in sixth form, you know, anything you can do on a computer, I wanted to do. So I used to play a bit with graphic design and editing of various sorts. One day I met a friend doing a photography A-Level. She wanted some models to shoot, I volunteered, and she let me do the editing.
I spent a while editing the photos, and honestly I loved them. Proper cameras are so cool! At some point it just clicked that to get photos that look how I want them to look, it needed to start from behind the camera and then finish with editing. I learned about photography on YouTube for months, from shooting techniques to which camera to buy, to editing. The day I got my Sony A6000, I had already owned the lens for it for weeks, it was basically a paperweight waiting until I had a camera body to attach it to.
Do you remember your first shot? What was it?
Of course, you never forget your first time! (chuckles)