Alex Hulsey: A Few Of My Favourite Things
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The Anonymous Content director reveals the messy desk, murdered plants and moments of spontaneity that shape his process.
Having had an interest in film since he inherited cameras from his great-grandfather as a teenager, Anonymous Content director Alex Hulsey relishes in the visual.
Bringing a cinematic approach to documentary-style storytelling for commercial clients including Beats by Dre, Libra, Evian, BBC, PlayStation, Carling, Airbnb, and Google, Hulsey's direction has seen him work between the US and UK.
Here, he tells us about the undercared plants and overwhelmed desk that keep his creativity flowing.
The Desk
My desk is in the corner of the room because Stephen King said it would remind me that “life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”
But I mostly make ads, which Rick Rubin argues isn’t actually art but commerce, so I’m not sure the whole corner thing is helping.
Neither of them mentions how messy a desk should be, and mine is usually pretty disorganised.
If you come over for dinner, my girlfriend will have shoved the laptop, cameras, film canisters, old mail and drawings our son made into a box tucked behind the couch so that it looks like we keep a tidy home.
I think I’m more of a Stephen King than a Rick Rubin.
The Plants
Sometimes when I’m writing, my brain sabotages progress with completely unconscious actions.
One minute I’m sitting there trying to word a treatment, the next I’m up inspecting every single houseplant.
If you come over for dinner, you will see we have quite a few houseplants.
When I go away on shoots, some of them go brown and droopy, and then my girlfriend and I argue about watering techniques.
Most of them don’t need much water, especially the little peyote cactus.
It’s been reported that eating peyote can trigger rich visual and auditory effects with spiritual and philosophical insights.
I bet Rick Rubin would like that.
The Photobooks
When I was seventeen, my dad and I got into a big argument because he caught me listening to my school-assigned books on tape rather than reading them.
I told him I was more of an auditory learner, which is true, and he came back with something really witty which I can’t seem to remember now.
I still listen to a lot of audiobooks.
If you come over for dinner you’ll see most of my physical books are actually on photography.
I use photography as inspiration and visual reference in my work.
Here’s a photo I love by Alex Webb from his book Suffering the Light.
The Unexpected Moments
I make a habit of always keeping a stills camera to hand.
I’m often anxious that something surreal or unexpected will happen in just the right light.
Like the time I came across a kid hugging a pelican.
Or the time a priest tried to hand my friend a pigeon.
We don’t have as many birds in Camberwell, so at home I mostly take pictures of my son, my cats and unflattering photos of my girlfriend, according to her.
If you come over for dinner I’ll probably chat about my camera collection.
You might even ask why I prefer shooting on film over digital, but I doubt you’ll be satisfied with the answer.
The Print
When I lived in LA I thought I was having a good time.
I ate a lot of tacos and surfed the breaks from Leo Carrillo to La Jolla.
But when I moved to London I realised being young and broke in LA was a bit of a drag.
You spend most of your day in a car and no one there seems to even like going to the beach.
Years later I came across this watercolour by the late Ken Price.
Prints weren’t for sale, but I emailed his estate and said it reminded me of how unspontaneous my life in LA felt, and that the little red car flying off the Santa Monica palisades could have been me.
They replied by asking where they could mail a print.
