about
Born in Moscow, I was inspired by photography literally from cradle, since my father was a professional photographer. Cameras that he never parted with; albums and guidebooks on photography and visual arts at all bookshelves; last not least, pictures shot by father and earlier ones painted by my grandfather — that was what actually formed my ‘home sweet home’ environment. A mere example: father had acquired all issues of the popular Soviet Photo magazine from 1957 up to the zine’s end in mid-1990s. As for the grandfather, he was primarily a painter and stuck to taking photographs in 1920s: his first camera was a 9*12 glass plate fold-out thing, and then followed a WWII trophy 6*6 Ikonta. In due course, I continued the family trade — it all began with a simple and cheap Smena 8M viewfinder camera presented to me by my father. I shoot everything and everybody that happened around, that is: friends, parents, my sister and, surely, wildlife and landscapes. The mysterial surroundings of the Russian North (my photographical initialization happened in the natural reserve near the Pechora river) turned wonderful stage for a novice. Later, when we returned to Moscow and I was ten — more decent hardware came in, that is FED RF and Zenit SLR cameras. No nature around, but crowds of friends — and dosens of portraits I made everyday, which later served as illustrations for the school wall newspaper. Even a real darkroom appeared at my home, where my father taught me some processing and printing skills — yes, one then needed to know every such stuff to get involved.
Do you know what the toughest way was to become a universal reporter in USSR? The Red Army really was such a way: just imagine free long-term journey to the Russian Far East, ever closed for trespassers… Mountains with their characteristic autumn red; thumb-size mosquitoes… And again dosens of ‘freeatlast albums’ made for friends and comrades — a perfect reporting school I daresay!
After the demob, I made my way to press photography through a couple of interim stages. A position of lab assistant at a publishing house in Moscow, to get completely familiar with all this tanks, fixers, developers and whatever; then a picture-taker for filmmakers, and voila! since 1990s I work as a press photographer, staff or freelance, for various Russian papers and magazines. My approach to war reporting in Kosovo, 1999, was awarded by the Russia Press Photo prize in 2000.
But my main passion - is Street Photography. Make a photo not on the task of the editor, and not on the headlines on any burning topic, but just for myself. Snatch a piece of life from the city bustle. It is not necessary for me to remain invisible in such situations - I like to communicate with people on the street, talk to them, rather charm them. Or as a hunter quietly sneak to his victim and make that single unique shot.
Today, I’m a staff photographer for the weekly magazine Odnako in Moscow. One can also take my master classes of genre-photography at the Modern Photo School Photoplay.
You’re welcome to email me at:
