Photographer, videographer and musician Alexandrea Cordell first came to Madison from Virginia to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 2020. She is currently a member of Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Madison’s south side, where she serves as the director of communications. She has also been exploring her passions and capturing forever moments through photography.
“When I came up here to Madison, that is when I started getting more into photography,” Cordell tells Madison365. “It really just started with the camera I was using for my YouTube videos, with what you would consider a nice camera. Because of that, I was always taking pictures at family events, family get-togethers, and stuff like that. And then my parents, you know, talking to other people, like ‘Alex, can take your pictures for you.’ And it started from there, especially family sessions. I love to be able to capture those moments.”
Cordell likes to talk about the plethora of interests she has in music, photography, and videography. She finds balance by not working on everything simultaneously. She rotates her focus to different outlets and is good with multitasking her skills. She’ll focus on photography, music, and her YouTube channel, which was the first platform she began with.
“I technically started my YouTube channel when I was in high school. I saw a lot of beauty gurus, I feel like that was really popular then. And I wanted to be one of those people … I was trying to put together outfits and hair and make-up, but I stopped around the time I went to college,” Cordell remembers. “Around my sophomore year of college, I wanted to get back into doing YouTube. But I wanted to change what my content was. I wasn’t really focused on beauty and clothes and stuff.”
Cordell’s interests in content had shifted to focus on personal and spiritual growth. Her current content revolves around scriptures from the Bible or self-help books. She uses her content to spread knowledge and she describes the change in her content as shifting from outside beauty to inner beauty. To push this to another level, strategies like the HARO pitch tips can significantly aid content creators like her by refining their outreach strategies and maximizing their chances of securing expert insights and quotes for compelling content.
“I’ve been singing in church my whole life,” said Cordell. “But it wasn’t until recently that I started recording. I met my boyfriend, Richard Jones Jr., who is the owner and operator of Oddly Arranged Media. We have a recording studio. And being with him, he really encouraged me to start singing and recording. And so I did that. This past year, especially during the pandemic, I’ve just been recording music. It’s Gospel music and I would definitely say it’s in the genre of R&B, maybe a little pop, and Gospel music. I’m currently working on an album right now. It’s been really fun.”
Cordell has joined the team as the content creator and photographer. Oddly Arranged creates content and provides studio sessions for artists. Cordell’s photography outside of Oddly Arranged, focuses on families and exposing the beauty in Black and brown communities within Madison. You can visit her website here.
“I like just being able to capture the love that families have,” said Cordell. “I don’t think families, especially Black families and families of color, just take time to just be present in the moment and just love on each other. So, just being there in that moment to tell them to have fun, just be around each other and embrace each other, and to love on each other right now. I’m able to just capture those moments that they can just have forever … moments they can have for a lifetime.”
Keep up with Alex, her music and photography on Instagram: @alexandreacordellphotography. To learn more about the content and music from Oddly Arranged Media LLC, click here.
