"Intimate portraits.

19.07.2013

What is the difference between a ceremonial portrait and a complimentary one? What about psychological and artistic? And can a formal portrait be, for example, psychological?

Undoubtedly, all directions are given to simplify and catalog creativity. On the one hand, this is true - in order not to drown in the ocean of art, you need to build “paddling pools”. For the author, such a definition unconsciously drives him into certain frameworks and restrictions. After all, people get used to the fact that an artist works in one key, and when the vector of his development changes a little, this causes some resonance of misunderstanding and the public demands a return to the roots. This makes it easier for her - she already has a certain understanding. New things are always accepted with fear and hostility. But only at first. Over time they get used to it.

I photograph girls and cannot clearly determine the direction in which I am doing it. What gives me some peace is that I don’t have crazy sets, huge pavilions or even props. I have people. And light – solar or pulsed. In this regard, I am absolutely calm - no preparations. We meet at a certain time in a certain place and work. I’m taking pictures, and the girl... No, she’s not posing at all - she thinks she’s posing.

And yet, why an “intimate portrait”? “Where is the intimacy?” – my friend once asked me. Really, where? The girls are not half naked, their poses are not at all playful, and they behave quite restrained. Only the blind can discern frank intimacy here.

Deceived?!

I will give you one “dry” definition. “An intimate portrait is a portrait against a intimate, uniform background, showing a trusting relationship between the person being portrayed and the artist.” Bingo!

People (in my case, girls) are an endless source of research. Each one is incredibly unique. Individual character, demeanor, look, communication style - nothing is repeated. The most important thing is to see and record it in time. And to see it, you need to get close to it. Individual girl - individual approach. It's simple. Even too much.

At the end of the 19th century, Van Gogh was fascinated by the theme of peasants. He lived among them for some time and painted pictures. But it’s one thing to simply watch the peasants at work and then transfer your impressions onto canvas, and another thing to become one of them, think like one of them and feel absolutely the same. That is, complete implementation into the environment.

I have a very similar approach. I try to be on an equal footing with the girls, to reduce all differences between us to a minimum, to understand their thinking style, to know their experiences and worries. Of course, the task is very difficult, since women’s worldview is completely different. And sometimes it is impossible to understand him. What can we say about getting into their heads! This is a super task. But this is exactly the goal I set for myself during shooting. If I want to get a girl in the photo, and not the “image of a girl” that has developed during my work, I need to take her side, look at the world through her eyes and try to feel how she feels. It is very important to look at yourself through the eyes of the person you are photographing. Become one of the "peasants".

It just so happens that it’s much easier for me to come to an agreement with girls than with the male population. The former are too illogical, and the latter are too stubborn. Choosing the lesser of two evils, I settled on the first and was right.

Each shoot is an adventure during which you try to find out what worries the person being portrayed, feel the train of his thoughts and capture the state that arises between you. And all this somehow needs to be preserved in the photograph! And don’t forget to leave a part of yourself as an author. In other words, working with a model is like modeling from plasticine. At first the material is quite hard and unyielding, but once you warm it up a little, get used to the texture and knead it in your hands, shapes begin to appear. And it remains to decide in which direction to move further - start with something familiar, gradually modifying it, or from the very beginning move intuitively, by touch, without thinking about the result. The last path is very intriguing - either something new will open up, or you will run into a pattern. But it's worth it!

The most dangerous thing that can lie in wait during a shoot is your thoughts. Monstrous, contradictory, restless thoughts. Some question will constantly be spinning in my head - is the model standing right, are the settings on the camera correct, what should I tell her, why is she looking at me like that? This noise is incredibly dangerous. Because of him, you may not get the final frame, because he will shout at you - “Okay, finish it! We got what we wanted. Let’s go process it quickly!” This noise will constantly supply you with a new portion of thoughts, preventing you from concentrating on the main thing - working with the model, psychological mood and emotional return. Sometimes it is very difficult to leave all your everyday problems at home. If you don’t slam the appropriate door in your head in time, it’s a lost cause. A photograph is built in your mind, and the camera acts as an intermediary between your head, heart and model. Clear your mind before making a statement. Let your heart guide you. You will argue and reject later. It would be something.

Working with a model is somewhat reminiscent of working as a tamer. Not otherwise! There are two types of models - active and passive. The first ones are extremely proactive, and if you don’t calm them down in time, you can lose the helm of the captain of the filming process. When I say “settled down,” I am, of course, exaggerating a little - the model should feel your confidence and knowledge of what you want to get from her, even if you are silent. Otherwise, she will think that you do not know what you want to achieve from her, thereby giving her the opportunity to manage the filming process herself. This path leads to a completely different result than the one you intended. Be bold enough in your work and don't let others control your thoughts.

Passive models are somewhat different. They are somewhat reminiscent of soybeans - it is impossible to eat it without your filling. Such girls steadfastly fulfill all your demands - they know who is in charge. Stand statically, jump a hundred times, five steps forward and stand on your head - as long as you tell him what to do. It is unlikely that a girl will argue with you - she knows that this is her job.

The issue of light cannot be ignored. And here I always remember Yuri Norshtein, a wonderful animator and director. A person who is constantly limited by art creates limitless art!

He once told how, some time after the release of Hedgehog in the Fog, he was invited to Pixar. People from California really wanted to know how Norshtein makes his cartoons, what equipment he uses and how much money he invests in it. He told, showed and even reproduced a fragment of the cartoon before their eyes. Can you imagine the eyes of these people, the giants of computer animation who created Toy Story, when Yuri Norshtein took out tongs, tracing paper and a hedgehog cut out of cardboard from his suitcase, and began to move it all on the table. Not only was the hedgehog moving, he was also in the fog - the tracing paper created such an effect. There was no limit to surprise, because they expected something different from him, definitely not handicraft. Norstein was Pixar's prehistoric human being, creating rock art in the computer age. Craft artist.

Norshtein did not have expensive computers, huge film studios or super equipment. All he had was tongs, tracing paper and cardboard. These are the limitations. But he had a dream - to create a cartoon that he could fall in love with. And when you fall in love yourself, you make others fall in love with it too. This is art.

In conclusion, I would like to quote one art critic, Francesco Bonami: “Art exists for those (and above all for those) who do not have money, but who know how to dream - and who do not need anything else for this.”

Portraiture and drawing tell the story of a person, his beauty, character and aspirations. A portrait artist deals with a person’s character, his complex individuality. To understand a person, to understand his essence by appearance, you need a lot of life and professional experience. The artist is required to have a deep knowledge of the person depicted. In addition to the individual traits of the person depicted, it is also important to convey those traits that his professional environment imposes on him.

Portrait(French portrait - image) - a genre of fine art depicting one person or a group of people. In addition to external, individual resemblance, artists strive in a portrait to convey the character of a person, his spiritual world.

There are many types of portrait. The portrait genre includes: half-length portrait, bust (in sculpture), full-length portrait, group portrait, interior portrait, portrait against a landscape background. Based on the nature of the image, two main groups are distinguished: ceremonial and chamber portraits. As a rule, a ceremonial portrait involves a full-length image of a person (on a horse, standing or sitting). In a chamber portrait, a waist-length, chest-length, shoulder-length image is used. In a ceremonial portrait, the figure is usually shown against an architectural or landscape background, and in a chamber portrait, more often against a neutral background.

Based on the number of images on one canvas, in addition to the usual, individual ones, double and group portraits are distinguished. Portraits painted on different canvases are called paired if they are consistent in composition, format and color. Most often these are portraits of spouses. Portraits often form entire ensembles - portrait galleries.

A portrait in which a person is presented in the form of some allegorical, mythological, historical, theatrical or literary character is called a costumed one. The titles of such portraits usually include the words “in the form” or “in the image” (for example, Catherine II in the form of Minerva).

Portraits are also distinguished by size, for example miniature. You can also highlight a self-portrait - the artist’s depiction of himself. A portrait conveys not only the individual traits of the person being portrayed or, as artists say, the model, but also reflects the era in which the person depicted lived.

The art of portraiture dates back several thousand years. Already in Ancient Egypt, sculptors created a fairly accurate likeness of a person’s external appearance. The statue was given a portrait likeness so that after the death of a person, his soul could move into it and easily find its owner. The picturesque Fayyum portraits, made using the encaustic technique (wax painting) in the 1st-4th centuries, also served the same purposes. Idealized portraits of poets, philosophers, and public figures were common in the sculpture of Ancient Greece. Ancient Roman sculptural portrait busts were distinguished by their truthfulness and precise psychological characteristics. They reflected the character and personality of a particular person.

The depiction of a person’s face in sculpture or painting has always attracted artists. The portrait genre especially flourished during the Renaissance, when the humanistic, effective human personality was recognized as the main value (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto). Renaissance masters deepen the content of portrait images, endowing them with intelligence, spiritual harmony, and sometimes internal drama.

In the 17th century In European painting, a chamber, intimate portrait comes to the fore, as opposed to a ceremonial, official, exalting portrait. Outstanding masters of this era - Rembrandt, Van Rijn, F. Hals, Van Dyck, D. Velasquez - created a gallery of wonderful images of simple, unfamous people, discovering in them the greatest wealth of kindness and humanity.

In Russia, the portrait genre began to actively develop from the beginning of the 18th century. F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, V. Borovikovsky created a series of magnificent portraits of noble people. The female images painted by these artists were especially charming and charming, imbued with lyricism and spirituality. In the first half of the 19th century. the main character of portrait art becomes a dreamy and at the same time romantic personality prone to heroic impulse (in the paintings of O. Kiprensky, K. Bryullov).

The emergence of realism in the art of the Itinerants was also reflected in the art of portraiture. Artists V. Perov, I. Kramskoy, I. Repin created an entire portrait gallery of outstanding contemporaries. Artists convey the individual and typical features of those portrayed, their spiritual characteristics with the help of characteristic facial expressions, poses, and gestures. The person was depicted in all his psychological complexity, and his role in society was also assessed. In the 20th century the portrait combines the most contradictory trends - bright realistic individual characteristics and abstract expressive deformations of models (P. Picasso, A. Modigliani, A. Bourdelle in France, V. Serov, M. Vrubel, S. Konenkov, M. Nesterov, P. Korin in Russia).

Portraits convey to us not only images of people from different eras, reflect part of history, but also speak about how the artist saw the world, how he related to the person being portrayed.

I came to this conclusion relatively recently, when I began to systematize all my footage. I sorted through the photographs, put them in folders, placed them in the right order, looked at them for an endless amount of time, cropped them, rotated them, thought... Until now, I have not characterized my photographs in any way. Psychological picture? Who knows, these girls are no more than 16. They are not rock stars, not actors or public figures. Ordinary girls who go to school. They walk, do homework and walk again. These can be seen on the street every day. But without an Instagram filter and Photoshop blur, you won’t recognize them. Don't even pay attention. On social networks, everyone looks different than in real life. In ordinary everyday life, everything is simpler. It's outrageously simpler. And modern people are not interested there. Boring. And it’s great for me! I'm happy. Because I'm the only one there.

I was lucky - a few years ago I came to one of the wonderful modeling agencies in Moscow and asked to shoot tests. They smiled at me and the very next day I worked with the girl. These are called "new face". New face. Girls come from various regions. From Nizhny Tagil to Samara. They do several shoots with different photographers and then evaluate whether it can be in demand in the West. If the type is in demand, she is sent, for example, to Japan. The girl is constantly under the supervision of the agency, no escort or services - only filming or showings. After a couple of months, she returns, with money, an incredible portfolio and unforgettable impressions. Hooray!

My models are no more than 16. I was lucky - I caught them at that stage when they still had no idea how the shooting was going and were not spoiled by the “choreographed” movements and gaze. I caught them completely clean. Both inside and outside. I talked to some girls, took an interest in their lives, hobbies and hopes. I was filming at the same time. There were also those with whom I could not utter a word. We just sat and looked at each other. And I filmed again. There are no tricks, except for one thing - we were always together.

I'm almost always dissatisfied with what I'm shooting while I'm filming. Internally, of course. The model should not suspect anything. Otherwise nothing will work out at all. Looking back, I want to note that this is a sure sign of successful work. I am constantly in a state of internal struggle. With what exactly - I don’t know. But I feel great about it. I'm angry at myself, at the model, at the light, at the camera, at everything. I curse every little thing. At any moment I can burst and then everything is catharsis.

No matter how strange it may be, the question “how to work with the model” still remains relevant. I'll tell you. Listen. It's very simple - let her do whatever she wants. Without exception. She wants to throw her leg over her head - go ahead! Sit on the splits between the branches of a tree - start, I'm filming! Is he squirming and never getting into the right position? This is how it should be, believe me. Why fight the model and force her to do something? Nobody likes to be forced. There is just energy seething inside her, it overwhelms her and asks to come out. So let her go quietly. As soon as this happens - and you will immediately understand it - she is yours. Fully. Without a trace. Do what you want with her. Now it will only absorb what you emit. Give yourself to her! Don't be greedy. By the end of the work you will be empty. Do not be afraid. That's how it should be. Did you shoot what you wanted? I'm sure so.

When I started to take up photography, I was very tormented by the issue of technology. I didn't know which lens to choose to achieve the required sharpness, I thought about the number of megapixels in the camera and tried to shoot only in the studio to control the light. I believed in the magic button on the most expensive camera. I was looking for her. Eh... Now I'm completely different. I have a standard lens that came with my amateur DSLR and I forgot about the fuss with megapixels. Because it's all nonsense. Complete. If you are an artist, what do you care about a brush? Your picture is written in your head, and the brush is just a tool that allows you to transfer your fantasies to the canvas. If you still don’t believe me, then here’s a quote from Francesco Bonami: “Art exists for those (and above all for those) who do not have money, but who know how to dream - and who do not need anything else for this.”

The most difficult thing for me after shooting is the selection. Too strong residual impressions can get in the way and you may not notice the face behind a beautiful photograph. In this case, I watch some great movie, cook dinner or take a walk. It is necessary to interrupt old impressions with a portion of new ones. It is very important. I don't like to leave 10 photos. One, maximum two photographs make sense. It is in them that there should be a discovery. If it’s not there, I continue to look for it in duplicates, or I postpone shooting until better times. Perhaps I need to grow up to these photos.

I like to be alone. When people get together, they become incredibly boring. An exchange of trifles and problems begins. I'm not interested in discussing problems. Meanings, ideas, discoveries matter to me. You need to stay alone, in silence. Develop a person's individual traits. They are the ones who create personality. And silence. Silence.

There is an opinion that it is necessary to maintain a dialogue with a person during shooting, otherwise he will not be able to relax. Will be able. Without meaning to. I know for sure. Point the lens at it. Yes, more. And watch. Silently. At first he will get nervous, maybe even start posing. But you, the photographer, are motionless and this confuses you even more. How so? Where's the team? Where to turn? Now, the person no longer knows what to do. The main thing here is not to let go of his gaze. He must be watching you. He thinks he has control over you. Constantly. His gaze is fixed on you. Into the lens. You are waiting for him. Come in! What? Click! Thank you, you were great.

Of course I use Photoshop! There is no secret in this, as well as in the fact that everyone uses it. Even inveterate haters of graphics programs and idealists of “pure” photography resort to his help. But the whole clue is hidden in this word - “help”. Not a photo remake. Not redrawing with light. Not a plastic change. The final touch, the author's flourish, an autograph. Call it what you want. It seems to me that if Leonardo had Photoshop, it would have taken him much less time to finish Gioconda’s smile, instead of 13 years. Serious deadline. Photoshop helps me identify those facial features that our eyes, and even more so the camera, do not notice. For me, a face is not two eyes and a mouth, it is an entire architecture, a landscape. It seems to me that a face is not just a portrait of the soul, but the soul itself, turned inside out. And I am infinitely glad that she doesn’t know how to pose.

It seems to me that a portrait in photography is something magical. This is not just a reliably captured face in a ten-megabyte file, it is not a bunch of wrinkles or closed eyes, or even your impressions of the person. This is something third. There is you, your portrait and it, the third. A certain substance that absorbed a part of you, the model, your mood, the external atmosphere, and then digested it for some time and released it for printing. The procedure is worse than any photosynthesis! A kind of soy that you fill with additives as you work. Quarrel during filming? Some pepper please! Problems with light? Bay leaf and a little salt! No contact between model and photographer? And add more seafood! This is not "100 best recipes". This is already an original cuisine. Experiment. Add yours, borrow someone else's. You are an artist, which means you are a bit of a robber. In a good way, of course.

I realized too late what I wanted to be.
Like any diligent young man, after school I went to college. An exciting event, isn't it? It was the same for me. About a year. Two dozen excellent exams, increased scholarship and peace of mind. And then that's it. No, no, I didn't drop out of school like all the cool kids in Silicon Valley did. Finished my studies. With grief.

Why is that? Photo. She consumed me. Possessed me. Firmly. Minx. I could no longer attend boring lectures. I wandered the streets. Filmed. Everyone will agree. And then I looked. Compare. Repeated. Tried better. Almost thoughtlessly. Almost.

This is my school. Photography school. They are unlikely to teach you at your desk. Need to find. Myself. Rethink and try. And then everything will work out for you. Just let it brew.

Composition is the basis of creating an image. This is the spatial relationship between all parts of the image. In general, as one of my magnificent artists said: “Everything should be in its place.” Here's how to understand it - whether everything is in its place - a matter of either time or instinct. If you have time, watch pictures, films, read literature and observe life. And those who don’t have time usually have an instinct. I know. Sometimes I feel it.

An artist does not have to explain his work. I am convinced of this. It seems to me that it is not entirely correct to impose on the viewer the meaning that you, as an artist, brought. After all, this is the coolest thing - watching how the viewer deciphers your work. He looks for connections, metaphors, compares, spins around, squints, admires or does not understand. But more often the viewer decides whether he can repeat it the same way or not. If he understands that he can do it, he happily moves on to the next job, and if not, turn off the light - he will begin to wonder what kind of frying pan it was cooked in, how much pepper they added and why they didn’t add salt. Maybe instead of the author's signature, leave a recipe under the work? You know, like in the old tear-off calendars. On every day. Pretty nice.

I shoot intimate portraits.
This is not always a complimentary portrait, because I do not strive to decorate the person; this is the complete opposite of a psychological portrait, since I do not show a person “as himself”; and finally, this is not an individualized image of a person, since I am not concerned with the moment of similarity. This is an absolutely personal, unknown state of a person, into which I penetrate under the pretext of photographing him, and for some time I look at the world with different eyes. This is what an intimate portrait is. This is when you can shamelessly insert yourself into another person and look at yourself through their eyes.

The issue of light remains invariably important. How many sources do you use in your work? Do you often change the light while shooting? What lighting schemes do you use?

In February, RIA Novosti held an open lecture by Yuri Norshtein (“Hedgehog in the Fog”). The topic of the speech was “The Art of Freedom, Freedom in Art.” He talked about his work, how filming was going, successes and failures. But his most important idea, which I found intersections with later, was that when art imposes certain restrictions on you, your work becomes more productive. That's it in a nutshell.

Let's return to the issue of light. It happens that you come to a shoot and it would seem that everything is super cool. You are in a great mood, the camera is set to a masterpiece, the model is beautiful, but... There is no light. Those light sources that were intended for you were taken by another, more important client (anything can happen), or the pulsed light burned out, and only the pilot light burned out from the constant one. It's sad, isn't it? But, fortunately, at this moment you understand that these are the very limitations through which art wants to test your endurance. And at this moment the enthusiasm becomes even greater! In such cases, I took either a modeling light, or a table lamp, or anything more or less luminous and shot. Attention! - filmed. And it worked. And often much better than under ideal conditions. I wish the same for you.

There is no need to turn the studio into a cult. It's just a tool. Not a bad one though.

Photography is an expensive pleasure. Just like ballroom dancing. Although it is not yet known which is better. When I started working, I always strived for a great result. And to achieve it, you need a team of wonderful people. Makeup artist and stylist are considered people whose participation is not even discussed! Everyone knows they are needed. If it’s rough, the makeup artist will do the makeup, and the stylist will dress it. All you have to do is shoot. Miracle!

Day of shooting. The model is moving, and part of the above-described team has fallen into the abyss of the inaccessible zone. There is none of them. And it is not expected. Emergency, no less. But it’s not just personal qualities that prevent people from canceling a shoot. So I take the model and we go with it from Metropolis. You know, the one on Voykovskaya. Big mall. Beautiful place! After wandering around a bit, you can easily paint the model there. But the most important thing is why we went there - to shoot. There's a ton of clothes there. Tons. Go to any store, pick up any clothes and take them off. Where? In fitting rooms. Believe me, there is enough space. Is it possible? God knows. I didn't ask, because I'm just a photographer.

I consistently and every day adhere to one principle - do what you love. I absolutely don’t care about all the objections and protests - they exist only in our heads. If you haven't found what you love yet, keep looking. Tirelessly. Every day. In every nook and cranny. You'll only know this is it when you find it. Don't be complacent. The most important thing - and this is even more than half the battle - is to take some steps. This is all infinitely banal and everyone knows it, but... There are still “buts”, right? Be brave enough to find your passion. This can be - and more often than not it happens! - not at all what you studied. No one can tell you what it is, only you.

I shoot intimate portraits.
I've never shot on time. I don't have a timer that goes off after three hours and says: "Stop! We've taken ours off. It's time to go home." I shoot exactly as much as my instinct tells me. If I feel like I'm missing 300 frames, I delete the original portion of the shoot and move on. If I see that I'm going crazy over a girl by frame 30, I'm done. I never try to fill up the entire memory card. It worked out - I'm happy. If not, then...

When I was filming one girl, she and I were laughing madly the entire shoot. I do not know why. I didn't make her laugh. We chatted, laughed, and seemed to become so close that I was ready for something more than filming. But everything turned out much better. She stopped laughing, looked at me and said: “That’s it. Now you. Give me the camera!” And I had to take her place. Now she was filming me. I didn't know where to go. He squeezed, smiled, even tried to dance. And she was filming.

This is a very rewarding experience. Sometimes you need to step into another person's shoes to understand them. You can’t look at the world from one point of view, you need to try to adopt someone else’s experience, someone else’s view. As they say, open your mind. At that moment I shot some of my best portrait work.

I never prepare for a shoot. In the sense that I don’t build the scenery, I don’t select the background, I don’t bring a bunch of stuff with me. No. I only use what I have on hand. There is a corner of the room - wonderful! We'll film there. There is a shabby chair - it's just a fairy tale! Black background, matte wall, linoleum - it makes absolutely no difference. The interior is absolutely not important. Absolutely. People adapt to anything. So cockroaches. That’s how the girls and I get used to any atmosphere. And we like her. And it’s no longer important to us. We forget ourselves. And we just watch. On top of each other, out the window, on the wall. Into emptiness. Let's put your imagination to work. We dream. Let's rest. There is nowhere else. There's a lot of fuss around. And the two of us. We remain silent and watch. We remain silent and dream. And again we are silent.

You never know what's on these women's minds.
I have always been fascinated by the worldview of women. This incredible inner world that cannot be solved. A mystery covered in a fairy tale. A lot of thoughts hidden behind a magical appearance. The collision of inner and outer beauty. Born flirts, following their desires. Unshakable self-confidence. Absolutely open feelings, absolutely bewitching passion. Impressiveness and simplicity. Unclouded eyes and a big heart. Marvelous.

How can you not notice this? It’s all in plain sight! Constantly. Right in front of your nose! Open your eyes already! And look. Look. Once I saw all this, I couldn't stop. And I started watching again and again. Only through the camera. It's more reliable.

As Zhvanetsky once said: “You need to write when you can’t help but write.”
I adhere to exactly the same principle in photography. I don't film just to film. This is not the right approach. Fundamentally not true. Some kind of deception. First of all, yourself. And photography punishes deceivers. She feels it. You need to be sincere in your desires and in your actions. There is no need to speak if there is nothing to say. It wouldn't hurt to listen first. And then think some more. And not only over what was said. I am too skeptical of such talkers. And I am completely distrustful of those who say: “Why are you silent? Tell me something.” How is this “something”? I don't know how to talk about this. And I don't know how. That's why I'm silent. I'm listening to what you have to say. It's much more interesting. And more educational. Although very rare.

Honestly, I don't know how many steps you need to take to arrive at a good portrait.
Angle, background, emotion, moment... Nowadays there is quite a lot of literature, lessons, examples of “how to do it in order to be good.” There are really a lot of them. It's the digital era. Absolutely any knowledge can be obtained in the public domain. And apply them. And get something. In fact, it doesn’t take much to become an artist. Someone said that to do this you either need to do the same as everyone else, or convince others that you are an artist through your work. The first way is incredibly simple. And accessible. Everyone. The second one is completely unknown. And where it leads - no one knows. Lottery. Are you lucky?

The most obvious example is the artists of Arbat. How many times have I walked past them and observed - they all know how to draw. Some are better, some are a little worse. But everyone can do it. They have an academic background. Hand placed. Firm and unshakable.

A real artist must break these foundations. He was taught, but he is relearning. Myself. As he wishes. And don't care about the rules. And then there is hope. And sometimes a masterpiece. But that's later.

I don't overthink anything in my works.
It seems to me that art was deliberately elevated to some kind of magical status. It would seem like a black square. Well, yes, a square. And I would draw one like this. And then you look - yes, it’s not quite square. The proportions are not geometrically accurate. Hmm... And you think. You look at him again. But in a completely different way, not like a square, but like a sacrament. What are you hiding there? You remember, analyze, compare... Look again. Surely! Everything is very simple. I'll tell you. By secret. Oscar Wilde told me about this. More precisely, he didn’t say anything, he left a note. And I didn’t just leave it - I hid it. And I found it. So: “Life imitates art to a much greater extent than art imitates life.”
That's all.

What guides me in my work?
I have several principles that I adhere to. Surprisingly, the great Apple also knows them and invariably applies them! True, in Cupertino. And I'm here, next to you.

So here it is:
"Do what you love." It takes a lot of courage to stick to it no matter what.
"Shake your mind." Creativity is the process of putting things together. A wide range of experiences broadens the understanding of human experience.
"Say no to a thousand things." Simplicity is the most difficult thing.
Do you know people who follow their passion? Do you have hobbies and interests outside of work? How high do you set your goal? It seems like simple questions, but they give so many answers.
Good luck!

How can you tell a good photo from a bad one? I had the same question. And it is right. It should be. The point of photography and photographing itself is to find answers. And this is infinitely important! This is one of the things about photography that I love passionately. Nothing in the world will give a more accurate answer than the search process itself. Simplicity is the most difficult thing. Remember? When you've worked through a thousand options, you have a lot to give up. When you only have one option, you'll stick to it. But it is unlikely that it will be exactly what you were looking for.

Let's return to the question. Alexey Brodovich interrupts me... Well, let's give him the floor. "Look at thousands of photographs and store them in your memory. Later, if you see something in the viewfinder that reminds you of the photographs you saw, do not shoot it."
Thank you.

I'm not one of those photographers who comes up with a theme in advance and then starts working on it. No. For me it’s the other way around - first I work, I shoot. I'm putting it off. I'm accumulating. I'm collecting it slowly. And then I sit down and start thinking about this material. And everything works out by itself. Of course, this does not happen immediately. It takes time. One thought gives way to another, one statement turns into another. This is very important - the way you imagined your work at the beginning of your journey should change dramatically at the end. Get a completely different vector of development. In the end you should come to a completely different result. Unconsciously. Intuitively. It is very difficult to make your way by touch. But this is the most intriguing thing - you will definitely come to something. And how you come to this will largely depend on what you saw along the way. It's like canning jars of cucumbers - you never know if any of them will explode.

I am very happy when girls come in a good or bad mood. In the first case, by the end of the shooting, it will change radically for them, in the second, they will tell who ruined it for them. This doesn't mean that I deliberately want to ruin their experience. Not at all. It is important for me to work through the entire spectrum of the female condition and pull out the one that is most characteristic in a particular case.

The most interesting thing about this is that there is no scheme. There is not a single perfect pattern for any girl! Each girl requires a different approach. The trick that allowed you to get a great photo the last time won't work this time. We need to reinvent tactics. Forget everything you used before and look for something new. Only there you can discover something and not repeat it. And this is the main task of the artist.

Appetite comes with eating.
This rule also applies to photography. Seriously. I don't come up with anything in advance. Exactly until the first shutter release, I don’t know how I’m going to shoot. But as soon as the first frame is taken, it is important not to suppress your imagination and inspiration. You need to follow your intuition and instinct. Shoot by touch, change the location (if possible), follow your heart, it will tell you where to move.

At the same time, it is important not to become a slave to the model, because at such a moment you are like a pioneer child who does not know where to go and a determined model can take over your initiative. Take what she gives, but process it in your own way. Study your model, pay attention to plasticity, emotions and condition. And don't forget to give her tips. Direct her thoughts in the direction you want.

Undoubtedly, the artist should analyze everything.
And this is one of the qualities that you need to train in yourself. And the best part is that you don’t need to buy, borrow, collect or build anything to do this. All you have to do is sit back and watch. And gradually what we so stubbornly run past every day will be revealed. But there is so much beauty around us.

Boudoir is a room belonging to a woman, a wardrobe or bedroom, in general, something that not everyone has access to, something very intimate. Photography of the private, intimate side of life is now becoming one of the largest growing photography markets in the portrait segment of the modern photography business. People want to show what they care about, how they work, live and want it all to look beautiful and stylish. At the same time, the days of bright, glossy photographs taken in high key are fading into the background. Women began to understand what the photographs printed in glossy magazines, posted on fashion blogs and on online resources like Pinterest were like. If you keep up with the times, then now you should be ready to enter this market and gradually move away from the gloss.

How often do you photograph professional models? How often do they stop by your studio? That's right, not so often. The bulk of our clients are ordinary people who want to have professional shots in their albums, but at the same time do not know how to pose in front of a camera. The photographer’s task is to liberate them and make them feel in their place. As a middle-aged man, I understand what a time-consuming process this is. After 25 years of working in the fashion industry, I can honestly say that I have seen a huge variety of body types and faces and, most importantly, people's personalities.

And the first thing I do before starting a photo shoot is meet people, talk about myself, show my work. At the same time, I try to look as clumsy and even a little idiotic as possible. This solves two problems. Clients stop being nervous, begin to behave at ease, and most importantly, they stop being afraid of looking stupid. Somewhere on a subconscious level, they understand that there are no ideal people and in order to get high-quality photographs, you just need to relax and be yourself. Remember this, your behavior will help relax your client.

Now let’s try to look at the main mistakes when shooting any portrait of an unprepared “model”.

In this photo, the whites of the eyes stand out strongly, and the hand lies somehow awkwardly. The girl looks tense and in a state of discomfort. Moreover, the hips are too full. I personally am not happy with this shot.

In the next frame, the girl lowered her hands a little lower, turned her head and eyes towards the camera, removed her hips from the frame and this is what happened. It seems like small changes, but how the culture of the photograph rises and how it becomes more attractive.

Choose the right angle, because it can either improve your photo or ruin it.

Very often, clients try to raise their chin higher in order to stretch out the skin, remove a double chin, and, in general, look more impressive. But as usually happens, the result is completely opposite. In the next photo, the model just raised her chin a little and tension in her figure and gaze immediately appears; it is absolutely clear to the viewer that the girl is completely uncomfortable in this position.

Let's try to lower our chin a little. As you can see in the next photo, nothing happened to the girl’s beauty, but it was this small nuance that gave the photo a little mystery and made the model look relaxed!

Watch your hand position.

Hands are another important detail that can ruin a photo. The next shot is good until you start looking at the hands. They are positioned like a football goalkeeper before taking a penalty kick. In this case, the hand on top looks larger than the hand on the bottom.

The next photo seems to be better. But the model still looks somehow uncomfortable and unsightly in this pose. It feels like one hand is growing in the wrong direction, while the other only gets in the way and is completely out of place.

Let’s change the position, freeing the near hand by placing it on the armrest of the sofa, which will also hide some details. And we will place the second hand along the body, which will only emphasize the smooth lines of the model’s figure.

Think outside the box.

Sometimes we are so fascinated by the model standing in front of us that we forget about everything and mindlessly press the shutter button of the camera. But what could be simpler than going beyond normal thinking. Just look around you. Look for favorable angles, use surrounding objects.

When shooting the next shot, I used a window, or rather, I photographed standing outside the window. Honestly, I hung around this window for a long time, thinking about how I could use it profitably. I wanted to create something unusual. After setting the exposure, I “developed” the reflections on the glass, and then matched the model and reflections to create a stunning image.

I know that now many of you are thinking to yourself: “...everything is fine, but it’s easy to teach by working with a professional model...”. Yes, she's a real model, but often models aren't perfect when you first see them. This is exactly what my heroine looks like in ordinary everyday life.

Photographer Kevin Focht

Photographer Masha Kushnir does not photograph models or celebrities. Her heroes are most often ordinary people, neighbors, friends and relatives, and her tools are natural light and a medium format film camera, which increasingly ends up where its owner is.

This is the Széchenyi Bath in Budapest. Despite the fact that it is one of the most famous attractions in the city, locals also go there. And all the time. We arrived almost to the opening, and among the visitors we met Hungarians playing chess right in the pool, old men reading the latest newspapers, painted women in pearls and this man who, as you can see, even closed his eyes with pleasure.

​These are my close friends, I photographed both of them a lot and often. But for some reason never together. Apparently, in vain.

I very rarely meet people who can move so smoothly and gracefully, as if they had spent the last ten years in ballet school. Nevertheless, Vika is one of them. Whatever she does - sitting on the floor waiting for a flight, running a marathon or drinking tea at her dacha - she does it all so gracefully and naturally that one cannot help but admire. I never ask her to pose, and all she can hear from me is the command “Don't move!”

A fashion designer friend of mine sewed this jacket as her graduation project, for which the photo shoot was started. It is very complex and very beautiful; she sewed it for almost six months. This photo was taken about ten minutes before the end of the shoot, when the jacket had already been photographed from all angles and it was finally possible to focus on the model.

Every time I come to Tel Aviv, I go to Siciliana - a cafe that sells the most delicious pistachio ice cream. In the photo is my friend Ira, taken through the window of the establishment with the horn I made famous.

Many years ago, we were sitting with friends in a restaurant, and a long-haired Armenian girl of about five ran past. I grabbed the camera and tried to take a picture of her, when her dad immediately appeared. Not all parents like having their children photographed, and without asking, too, so I was prepared for an unpleasant dialogue. But no, on the contrary, the girl’s father asked to send him photographs, he liked them, and he wanted a photo shoot. This is how our friendship with Maryana and her parents began.

It's quite difficult to capture the moment on a heavy medium format camera with manual focus, and I often hear that my photos look like paintings. But here I wanted not just to photograph a beautiful girl, but to photograph Vika. I put her in the corridor, stood opposite her, focused and started chatting, trying to make her laugh. When I finally succeeded, I got this shot.

Photographing children with a manual focus film camera is quite an adventure. Especially when there are three of them and two cameras. Nevertheless, this photo turned out to be very timeless and serious. But that's not why I love her. The true character of this girl is best evidenced by the big toe of her left foot, which is so touchingly buried in the carpet.

The newsstand salesman was filmed with a camera borrowed from a friend many years ago. I didn’t know a single photographer at that time; I don’t think I’d even heard of Cartier-Bresson. Nevertheless, just like him (I apologize for this comparison), I filmed a lot in Paris. It was in this city that it all began.

​This shot was taken in Berlin's Old National Gallery. There were few people that day, and my friend and I walked around the halls for a long time, carefully studying the paintings. This man was sitting in one of them, all alone, he was looking at one point and, apparently, listening to an audio guide. It would seem that there was nothing unusual in the situation itself, but in his pose and gaze, in the way he sat on the edge of the bench, there was so much loneliness and sadness that it was impossible not to photograph it.

This is London, 2012. There are a lot of cars around, people are rushing somewhere, impatiently overtaking each other, some nervously look at their watches, others at the traffic light. And then the green light turns on, all this dissipates, and these girlfriends appear out of nowhere. They cross the road at a leisurely pace, holding each other’s arms and discussing some topics that are important for their age. This is probably how I would like to meet my old age.

I really don’t want to tell anything about this photo; it seems to me that any details will destroy its magic.

I photographed actor Yuri Kolokolnikov for Afisha in connection with the release of the new season of Game of Thrones, where he starred. To prepare for the shoot, I remember I had to arrive almost an hour and a half before the meeting. Probably, judging by the glass of whiskey and the general background, it seems that this was a leisurely conversation about life, but in fact the interview and photo session took about fifteen minutes, and after us a crowd of journalists was waiting for Kolokolnikov.

I never photographed pregnant girls and, until I had my own children, I generally tried to avoid such orders. But I couldn’t refuse this girl. She was about to give birth, and I was very worried, because I understood that she was in such a state for the first, and maybe the last time in her life. I really wanted to convey all the importance and beauty of the upcoming event.

I think this is the Palais Royal park in Paris. A completely normal plot for this city.

I went to Petra with two or three cameras, and it seems that nothing else fit in my backpack. We spent a total of eleven, not the most pleasant hours of my life, on the road just to see this ancient city. Who would have thought that the favorite photograph from there would not be portraits of Bedouins, not crypts or temples, not even a postcard view of the world famous Al-Khazneh mausoleum, but this Jordanian donkey.