My name is Olga, I'm 31 years old. I was born in Russia, in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg and I still live in. The studies I have followed had nothing to do with photography because I do not really know what I wanted to do in life. Later, I started to draw, I loved this artistic activity until my discovery of photography. I live with my husband, he is himself a photographer, our favorite subjects are totally different and we like to share our views. We have an adorable pug called Korjik. I do not like talking about myself, I find much more interesting to speak about photography.
I am interested in photography for 7 years to the point that I became a professional photographer. I first used a compact camera with which I photographed almost everything, but I especially loved to photograph our city including the center which is very beautiful, I wanted to photograph it in my way. Then I found on the Internet a photography website on which I registered under the name of "Curly". I got very involved: discussions with simple photographers like me but also with renowned photographers ... for hours. This site made me discover nude photography, I started doing nude self-portraits. It was then that I realized that my compact camera not satisfy me, so I bought a DSLR and I photographed people. It was great! In fact, each person is different, unique and it was very interesting to see with different eyes than can have someone from the entourage.
I notice that many people are beginning to photography, but few continue. In my case, this passion turned into profession as I said above. After 4 years of digital photographs, I wanted to approach the film photography, in particular medium format ... and there I discovered a new world.
It is quite difficult for me to answer, I think that I just fit. Indeed, I have tried a lot of things, with varying success; for example, I would like to learn to play a musical instrument, but I'll get to a certain level of interest? ... Because I'm a perfectionist! Finally, regardless of the means of expression used, the most important is to communicate emotions, and when we succeed, we want to go even further in creation.
At first I photographed almost everything that could be photographed until I found "my" theme. Currently I am dedicated mainly to the portrait and the nude.
Generally my photographs express what I feel deep inside me; if I manage to move even one person so I'm happy, and then if I do not succeed, it is not very serious, on the contrary, because nothing happens by chance and it makes me photograph differently. And sometimes I just look for the pleasure experienced to do a session of shooting.
Sensuality ... it's hard to describe with words. Everyone is beautiful; in every being, there are feelings, tenderness that may be perceived in a brief moment, it is at this time that I take the photo. It may be that, sensuality for me.
This is a complicated question, because everything passes, everything changes. At first I was fascinated by several authors, today it's different, I can be inspired by a single photo or multiple photos of a series, the style or moods. Deborah Turbeville, Sally Mann, Diane Arbus inspire me but I also like the brilliant documentary photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson, private series of Annie Leibovitz, I love the work of Elliott Erwitt. At one time, I was passionate about the pictures of the early twentieth century Heinrich Kühn; I also like photography-impressionist, probably because in painting, Impressionism is my favorite style. And I could mention many others.
Most often it happens spontaneously, I have the model in front of me or I see her on a picture and immediately I have images in mind. Then I reflect more accurately the pictures I will do and finally I talk to the model to fix the place and time of the session of shots.
Regarding artistic photographs, I use for analog, a Hasselblad 500 CM, a Moskva 5 and a Canon EOS 500 and for digital, a Canon 5D Mark II; I like to test all the old film cameras that I can find.
I use digital and film but I prefer the medium format. I like working in natural light but sometimes if needed, I use additional artificial light.
In fact, it is difficult to evaluate themselves. I am looking mainly to express feelings in my photographs. I worked a lot on me and I think my photography has evolved in parallel. As soon as I started working with film, my style has changed. I find that the images are more "alive" and give off a different atmosphere; and then in analog, we makes fewer images, we think a little more and take the time to do things properly.
Internet gives me a lot of useful information ... and useless, allows me to meet new interesting people and gives me the opportunity to share my photos with a wide audience.
I must say that unfortunately, I do not often have the time to visit the various sites. SP is a pleasant site and style photos presented approximates my photographic world; more SP is international and it is interesting to discover a large number of photographers. I like above all to share my photos and maybe make new friends and even consider new photographic sessions .... And of course, the most with SP it is this interest for different artists through these interviews. Maybe my interview will allow someone to discover me, if ever I succeeded in leave positive emotions!
I live in the present, so I do not have specific plans for the future. Today I'm just trying to progress, to move my life path.
Thank you once again for your attention. It was interesting because if the questions seem simple, it was however not always easy to answer.
A special thank you to Hélène Vinni, companion of Benedyct Antifer (photographer of SP), for her help with translation "Russian-French".
https://www.facebook.com/Photographe.Helene.Vinni/timeline
http://www.sensual-photography.eu/portfolio-uk-benedyct-antifer-1617.html