I was born in the small town of Lviv, in western Ukraine. After completing my studies and working a little, I moved to Kyiv [Kiev] where I worked as an assistant to a famous advertising photographer. I was making money, but I lost my creativity. For a long time I thought that was all I was able to do, until I tried to shoot on medium format film. That changed my life.

 

My photographic journey began when I was 16 and working in a photo lab.  

As an operator, part of my job was to adjust all the pictures that the photo lab printed. I had a few buttons to control the colour, brightness and contrast.

I lived for several years in “reality show” mode, observing every day life. I have visited thousands of weddings, birthdays and many other special occasions. I could do this forever, in what I call “robot” mode. This means working seven days a week for several months.

This experience taught me what colours people like. I am using this information to this day.

What I like about photography as a medium, is that, like every Ukrainian, I love freedom.  I like the ability to stop time and create my version of reality.

 

There is inspiration all around us if only we look.  Everything changes very quickly: the weather, architecture, landscape, people.  Everything that happens in our lives is a unique source of inspiration.  So there is no point in using other people’s work as inspiration - there’s no sense in stealing someone else’s ideas! 

I think artists of the 18th century and 19th century would be jealous of what we have now. We can live anywhere and create anything and show it around to world.  We have the world in our hands.

Each of my pictures has a unique story and my models are heroes and I love them for it.  My photos require many complicated props and outfits and I always try to do everything myself. I collect clothes from flea markets or old studios and then learn how to adapt them. Same with the props.

 

I have a notebook where I keep a lot of ideas for photography.

If everything turns out as I imagined, preparation takes two to three days.

It is a question of weather, people or mood. Sometimes the work does not yield the result I wanted. Therefore, the more experience and reflection I devote to the shoot, the better.

I only use medium format film. It’s hard to explain in a few words why I do this. It’s a different system.  I shoot for 12 frames and enjoy the importance of each frame. I carefully work on each frame.  This is a fantastic process. You press the shutter button but do not know what happens. 

This is real magic.

I often hold workshops and it’s very funny sitting in front of many photographers with $2000-$3000 cameras and lenses, and on my table is an old Kiev 6C, which is worth about $50.