Every month, we pick a LEGO photographer active in our community and share some of their work and a little about themselves. This month we traveled to Portugal to meet Pedro Alexandre (Instagram:alexandre_coelho22 | Tumblr: alexandrecoelho)!
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_1-648x864.jpg)
Greetings everyone!
My name is Pedro Alexandre but I’m known on the social media as alexandre_coelho22.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_2-648x864.jpg)
I’m a 36 years old guy that lives in Praia da Barra (Portugal) and I work in a Free Time Activities place for kids in a primary school.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_3-648x864.jpg)
Since I was a little boy my creativity always stood out. I guess that mainly influenced by my father, which, when younger, used to draw, paint and now continues to make all kind of crafts.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_4-648x864.jpg)
Because of that, I constantly searched for activities where I could improve my capacities and then, 5 years ago, when I had to create a photo with a toy for a photo contest, I realized that this could be an amazing way to keep my mind busy and working!
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_5-648x864.jpg)
So in the beginning, when I started to take this photos, I didn’t actually think about the story behind and I didn’t create scenarios or anything else. I just took a few moments watching my minifigures thinking: “what could I do with you?”.
Nowadays, I take most of the time creating the scenarios, first in my head and then with my hands and thinking about the whole story behind the final image.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_6-648x864.jpg)
Although I use almost exclusively minifigures as a Lego element, I always try to make them the main subject of the photos.
That’s why I manipulate the minifigures’ limbs: I’m trying to give them a kind of a reality feeling.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_7-648x864.jpg)
To create this photos, I rely on my old friend Sony DSC-HX300, that I’ve bought somewhere around 2016 and his movable display allow me to explore perspectives in an easier way.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_8-648x864.jpg)
The exclusive photo
“Rebuild Time” was the name chosen. It came to me that I could grab a train and make a train station. The Central Brick Station! The problem is that I don’t have any train in my collection.
Well, but has I said, I work with kids and I know that some of them have LEGO sets too, so I asked if any of them have a train set. Fortunately one of the kids have this Passenger Train – 60197. I talked to his mother and in the next day, she brought it to school to lend me for the photo.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_bts1-648x864.jpg)
Now, why a train station? Trains always make me think about the idea of “leaving something behind”.
A teenager that leaves his parents to go to university or that goes to work far from home, a young girl saying goodbye to her lover to chase her dream in a new town, a man that leaves his friends and his home to discover the world. A travel to the unknown.
In my case I didn’t jumped on a train, but some years ago, I needed to “Rebuild The My World” and so, I left behind two things that I love, but that used to take most of my free time: Scouts and Music.
I’ve tried to represent both of them on the photo with the backpack and the guitar.
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_excl-648x864.jpg?_t=1676275778)
The name of the station has a purpose in this story too. After I started my “new journey”, I ended up seeing me in the middle of this incredible hobby: to photograph LEGO and then I found BrickCentral.
It was like arriving to the destiny! Because, like a train station, it welcomes an endless number of people and ethnicities and lead all of us on an incredible journey into the world that is LEGO photography.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_bts2-691x864.jpg)
A quick explanation about the scenario. So, with some cardboard, hot glue, polystyrene foam and paint, I created this train station. That was the easy part. Taking the photo, well, it was not so easy. I took more than 100 photos until achieve this result. Rebuilding and rebuild again. First I had only the train moving and the guy with the guitar. Then I added the girl and the boy moving too. After that, I finished with the backpack. Tough work, but so funny to make.
![](https://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/alexandre_coelho22_bts3-691x864.jpg)