Alex Mineer -The Liberated Collection-

"I don't want to be in a field of flowers."

"I don't want to be gazing off into the distance, standing next to a railroad."

 -A. Mineer

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Alex Mineer pisses on cliches. She owns yellow shoes. She wears t-shirts with wolves on them -- you know the ones likely to be seen in a Napolean Dynamite type movie. She prefers films that were released when her parents were born. She's more likely to idolize a Hepburn than a Hathaway. She enjoys music that you don't listen to. She recognizes conformity and sidesteps it. Alex lives in rarefied territory, belonging to a minority that seeks out deviation in everyday life. Creating something unique for her became important to me. I just knew that her version of unique was going to have to be truly contrary to the typical senior portrait. Good luck Nick.

Alex and I share the same height, were both 6 feet tall. Most of that is made up in her legs -- a feature that won her an award at her senior banquet. When I think of great legs my mind automatically recalls a quote from the movie Clueless where new hotboy Christian merely tells Cher she has "nice stems". Thank you Lindsay, Chelsea, and Kaylee for making Clueless our official family road-trip movie. Besides having legs that go on for days Alex has a smile that makes you want to hug her dentist -- they're perfect and whiter than a shirtless yours truly. Aided by her comforting and wise sister, my very good friend Sam -- random fact about me: when I was young I wanted to name my first daughter Sam, the three of us traveled across the empty downtown streets of phoenix on a hot Saturday afternoon, talking about Alex's past -- don't get her started on guys, her present -- the neverending story of her mindless job at Harkins (no giant dog unfortunately), and her future -- she's headed to the tiny town of Thatcher, AZ to start the long road to becoming a pharmacist.

The shoot's finale possessed the shock factor. The conversation starter. The series that she wanted to represent her as daring and spontaneous. I've always been interested in taking every day food items -- candy, eggs, soda, etc..., and incorporating them as sort of animated subjects. I'm obsessed with milk. I drink almost 2 gallons in a week and a half. I've always wanted to photograph the thickness of milk, and the Annie Leibovitz image of Whoppi Goldberg bathing in milk has always struck me as awesome. So to best her pal Bradley Dawson -- I photographed him last year jumping into a fountain in a tux, she was committed to getting messy. And she relished in it, but probably not as much as Sam enjoyed dumping an entire gallon of whole milk on her sister's head. Here's to a shoot that was practically unidentifiable to the senior portrait bubble, and to a girl who's proud of her distinct DNA. This is Alex Mineer, and she's been liberated.