Photographer, Alex Knowbody

ALEXKNOWBODY

Watering the Seeds of Heritage and Family in San Jose

Written by Katie Shiver Photography by Miles Caliboso

Alex was down on his luck after high school, when his best friend, a graphic designer, financed a camera for him. “I was kinda lost, and he put a tool in my hand,” Alex explains. “Ever since, it was hard to let go of the camera.” Following Bobby Kim and Ben Shenassafar of the Hundreds, he adopted his streetwear blog title, The Knowbody, as a pseudonymous last name.

He launched the Knowbody clothing brand, and along with “little random photography gigs,” that sufficed until he became a father, which requires more income. He and some friends opened a clothing boutique, Pesos Bodega, but it didn’t last long, because they were too inexperienced. Alex then worked in apartment maintenance.

One day when he was scrolling Instagram, he noticed that Iguanas Burritozilla, a San Jose–based restaurant, wasn’t getting the attention their “deliciousness” deserved. So, he called and became their unofficial creative director. He doesn’t even remember if he got paid, but it paid off, because he picked up more clients, and his supplemental income grew enough for him to quit his job.

Alex started the creative agency Better Than Good Enough LLC. “I was just tired of doing half-ass shit. I want to do better than that,” he shares. His LLC gave him the opportunity to work with the metal band Maya at Google on a Día de los Muertos collage project and to shoot for the Earthquakes—including photos of Wondo (number 8), who is retiring this season.

After having grown up in East San Jose, Alex moved to Portland for two years with his wife and daughter. In Portland, shooting a bike for Nike’s BIKETOWN PDX Latino heritage month boosted his confidence in himself and his developing style as he homed in on his Mexican culture and Latino heritage. San Jose had many Hispanic locations and

“I was kinda lost, and he put a tool in my hand. Ever since, it was hard to let go of the camera.”

-Alex Knowbody

models, but Portland was a foreign city. “Where the majority of the city’s white, there’s not a lot of [Latino] inspiration…I had to look for it,” Alex says.

During COVID-19, work dried up, from closed restaurants to cancelled events—including his planned art show. So, Alex, his wife, daughter, cat, and fish moved back to San Jose—to all live in one room in his mother-inlaw’s house. Private family photo sessions, along with becoming the creative director for Purple Lotus cannabis dispensary, got him through COVID-19 and helped bring back his belief in himself.

Alex’s dad is from Mexico and his mom is first-generation San Josean, which makes him a “first-and-a-half-generation” San Josean. Growing up, Alex felt like an outcast. “I couldn’t choose one [parent] to identify with, because I identified with both,” he says, regarding the Americanized Chicano side and the Mexican-rooted paisano side. “There is a lot of that here, but maybe the people don’t have the outlet to express it,” he continues. One outlet he attended was the Día de los Muertos Aztec dancing at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, where he took his daughter to water her cultural “seeds.”

Alex’s family is a family of creatives. His daughter is bold enough at nine years old to cut her hair and dye it bright green, and his wife paints and just launched her lifestyle brand, the Madre Life. For Alex, fatherhood is an inspiring change. “I feel like a lot of things could be cleared up if you just have clear communication. And I’m learning that through experiencing putting myself in my daughter’s shoes.”

After being featured on The FIRM podcast this year, Alex was asked to participate in the documentary San Jose Is Not for Sale. The squad, all from East San Jose, are working pro bono. “Everybody is doing it for the love for the city, because we give a shit…we have a story to tell,” he shares. “We feel like everybody tries to tell the story of San Jose in a way that maybe a lot of us don’t understand, and now it’s our turn.” They’re photographing things like local coffee shops, artists, and flea market vendors who face displacement to showcase the change that the city’s going through. Alex elaborates, “That shit’s gonna be dope. Like, the images, the stories, the people we get to interview…if it doesn’t mean shit to anybody else, it’s gonna mean something to us. This is a project that we are all gonna be super proud of.”

When asked about times he felt like giving up, he shares, “That’s every day, honestly… there’s good days and there’s bad days, and those bad days feel like forever…not only you feel it, but your family feels it.” Alex wants to inspire other people: “If that fool could do it, I could do it…I’m just an average-ass dude who, like, put in the time and effort into creating.” C