Behind the mask of Alai, or alai.art, lies Alexander Lorenzen, born in Hamburg in 1982. Alexander Lorenzen grew up in Rostock during the late 90’s-2000’s, and moved to Berlin nearly 8 years ago, where he continues to live and work. In addition to his work as an untrained photographer, you may have seen Alexander Lorenzen, a.k.a “DJ Platenali,” spinning records at one of the local dance floors. 

 

Although Alai was interested in photography from the early age of childhood, it wasn’t until later in life that he actualized his passion. Alai reflects that, “Digitisation helped me capture and display what I saw without having to spend a long time in the lab. Ironically, that’s exactly what I used to bitch about in the past as a Vinyl DJ.” 

 

The fact that Alai’s photography was on exhibition at Silber&Salz’s gallery in October was due to pure luck and coincidence. Alai (a happy raver) and Chris (a gallery owner and happy raver) share a mutual friend, Bora (another happy raver), who knew that both Alai and Chris shared the same passion for black and white photography, and therefore brought them together. 

 

"Having my own exhibition has always been a secret dream of mine. I hope my photos will speak to people and offer them the chance to see what I have seen, or to simply enjoy