Her mother is Swedish and her father is German. She was born in Australia, but grew up in Switzerland. After university, she moved to New York City for a year. That’s where she met her now-husband, who is originally from France. In between her travels, Alexandra (Alex) Lhermite-Schwass lives with him in London.

To say that Alex has an international background is a bit of an understatement.

If her parents’ varied heritage hadn’t passed down a love for travel in her genes, the fact that they took her and her brothers on trips around Europe, and to the United States, Australia, and Asia would have cemented it. Alex has been traveling since she was a newborn, and she hasn’t stopped since.

As a teenager, Alex bought postcards featuring magnificent landscapes from around the world — deserts, mountains, fields of green, a canyon with a deep blue lake. And every now and then, she would take her postcards out of the box she collected them in, just to daydream about future adventures.

It wasn’t until she was a college student that she started taking her own postcard-worthy shots.

She began with a very basic digital camera — nothing too fancy. As she experimented, her passion for photography only grew. She never confined herself to a single theme, like some photographers choose to do. Instead, her work evolved to fit her eclectic style, including everything from people to animal portraits, landscapes to architectural details.

Alex’s passion for photography and travel has taken her to varied locations around the world. She’s traveled through mainland Europe, but some of her favorite trips have taken her to Morocco, Tanzania, and India. Freelance jobs have even taken her to the Faroe Islands, Scotland, and around the United Kingdom.

Before she arrives in each new place, Alex buries herself in research about the beautiful locations, interesting experiences, and photogenic opportunities that await her. Once she’s there, though, the research only goes so far. She keeps her eyes wide open, observing everything and relying on spontaneity to lead her to create her compelling images.

Although she documents all aspects of her journeys, she finds herself particularly drawn to portraiture. It’s a type of photography that doesn’t come naturally for her — approaching strangers or photographing a human subject isn’t the same as aiming a camera at immoving landscapes, unspeaking animals, or permanent structures. But Alex embraces the challenge, and tries to find the perfect way to capture a particular expression, the way a person interacts with their environment or moves their body. From behind her lens, she sees beauty everywhere.

Aptly named “What Alex Loves,” her Instagram feed bursts with personality — part of her own heart and soul inhabiting every photograph in the neat, 3×3 grid. The result is a colorful collage of her unique perception of the world around her, a dedicated visual diary of her travels.

Alex photographs what she sees, and right now, that’s the whole world.