Lex Carthur’s romantic ads focus on the emotional core of top tier athletes

Lex Carthur is a director who does what he knows, which is a lot. Beginning as an artist then moving to photography, then falling in love with photojournalism, Lex has only continued to expand artistically with over a hundred jobs under his belt for clients such as Nike, Adidas, Sports Direct, Salomon and Vans. Interested in sports and culture and top tier athletes and those who rise to the top despite everything, Lex’s work gets into the deeper layer, something which often revolves around “a brief that has the inherent ability to be able to say something. A client brave enough to let the action do the talking and sell the subject to sell the product.”

Lex’s sharpness for all things sport and outdoorsy is evident in his warm, empathetic films. In his Nike commissioned short showcasing Keely Hodgkinson, he places the athlete as the emotional centre, focusing on her character as a feat of sportsmanship rather than her physical abilities. There’s a floaty, Terrence Malick-esque attitude to the character, which captures her from low angles and in flurries of movement made possible by Lex’s low shutter speed. Lex gets closer to his subjects than most directors, because he’s also his own editor and colourist. “When I started out, I knew no one, I didn’t know the role names or any programs, I only knew that to make a film you had to shoot it, and edit it. So I taught myself,” says Lex. “It’s not so much of a flex as a crux.”

In Canyon Speed Dreams for Canyon Bicycles, Lex’s grainy textures bake us into the world of professional cycling, whilst jarring edits and blown out colours accentuate the physical toll of long distance riding. In his commissioned film for Adidas’ Adizero Boston shoe, Lex once again chooses emotional intelligence over edgy, cool performance – focusing on the community and friendship of running together. “There are a lot of great directors who intend to dizzy you and excite you and almost confuse you for a moment, maybe even a minute, for the gain of their overall emotional tone,” says Lex. “But, when people try to emulate that, and I do believe there are a lot of professional emulators, it doesn’t work because you don’t know why it’s being done in the first place.”

But that doesn’t mean any of his videos are any less stylish – any given video of Lex’s might just make you jump up and want to start running in the middle of winter with your mates. “I am trying to connect first and excite second,” says Lex. “I am always trying to impart energy on the piece and that energy can be in camera motion or in on-screen action, a moment with the subject or talent.”

It could be argued that his particular brand of empathy began with a cycling zine he made with friends in Herne Hill during lockdown. After shooting 36 rolls of film of cyclists and spending all of his salary to get the photos processed, his housemates suggested he created a zine of his lockdown efforts – and immediately sold out both runs of it. Turns out, one of the riders he shot was a pro and wanted to make a film. This led him into an avalanche of opportunities from clients who saw just how dedicated he was to capturing athletes in their zone, and the rest was history.