It’s been quite a while since I posted last time. But that’s how it works, when the blog is a part of your class work: sometimes you have another stuff to do.
Photographs of love are one of the most warming ones, so this time I decided to look for a nice couple to talk to. However, how it usually happens, you cannot remember things when you want to. Though, luckily for me, I met Jade, whose real name is Khash-Erdene Ganbat, and remembered that he has been dating Alma Zhatleuova for a quite long time. I was really happy, when they agreed to show me some photographs and tell stories behind them.
Alma and Jade started dating and officially said that on Alma’s birthday. The first picture they showed me is from that birthday celebration.
I remember them seeing together at that time, and they actually looked very good together from the beginning of their relationships.
“I am willing to create a future with her. It’s just something precious,” said Jade.
As both of them said, they have a lot of photographs of them being together.
“I have a folder with our pictures, and inside it more folders. So if I want to find something, I have to go through a lot of pictures,” said Alma.
But the reason for it is valuing every moment they spent together:
“Whatever happens we just make a picture[…] After a year when we start working and get all stressed by adult stuff, we’re going to forget all these precious memories. And we agreed that we’re going to take a picture of every single event, so we will not forget it,” said Jade.
Let’s wish them a lot more photographs of their future happy life together!
This time I decided to talk to someone, who is a photographer himself. Igor Myakotin is a junior at American University in Bulgaria from Russia and one of the most known people on campus. When I got the idea of interviewing him about his favorite photographs, I was really shy to ask him for interview personally, even though we take two classes together. For me, he is like one of those cool kids on the block you are not really talking to. So, I messaged him, and later when we met, Igor was actually very nice. These are pictures he showed to me: Both of them are very mysterious and that’s what Igor actually like about them, because they stand out of all pictures he has taken for five years of practicing photography. His parents bought him a photo camera when he went on an exchange to US in 2008. The first picture was taken during his exchange year. On Halloween break Igor’s host-father took him to Universal Studio amusement park in Los Angeles.
“It was dark, there was a lot of fog, and people walking around and screaming, trying to scare you. I took this picture in black and white. There are people under a street light. I just like how simple it is and mysterious.”
You wouldn’t really think that the picture was taken accidentally, but as Igor said, he didn’t prepare for it. “It was pure lack and chance that I took it.” I also like the mystery in the photograph, as if some mischief was planned under that street light. The second picture was taken when he was back to places where he used to live, Colorado, in 2012.
“I took this picture of sunset, and you can see mountains in the distance. Again, it’s very simple and I like the colors. It just reminds me of Colorado and that wonderful time.”
If you look carefully, you can see a slight splash on the photograph. Igor explained to me that it’s not a digital photo, but a film photo. He doesn’t know what happened, when picture gets developed, there are some little accidents and picture becomes messy. But he likes it, because it makes photographs more artistic.
“It gives a value and a soul to a picture.”
At the end of the interview, Igor appeared to me from a different angle. Even though today photography is extremely popular, and teenagers by expensive cameras and pretend to be photographers, there are still people who are interested in inner beauty of photographs. I wish Igor all the luck to make photography as a profession or even more!
Here is the video of Igor in action and talking about his future plans on photography.
Clearly, taking photographs is the best an easiest way of catching a special moment in your life, like a wedding. But how does it feel to be not in the guest list? This week I talked to Emily Galimzyanova, a freshman student from small city in Russia, whose father is a professional photographer.
As she said, there is almost no art in photography for Rinat Galimzyanov today. Though, since he was twelve or even younger, it was a beloved hobby for him. Then later, he with a photo camera and hippy friends used to go somewhere out of the city to abandoned houses, ruined churches and just pure nature. He was an active member of photography clubs and usual guest at photo studios.
After graduation from medical institution, Rinat worked in medical services till Emily was 7. It was a time when there was no photo camera in every family, and he started going around his town to the villages and taking photos of kids with toys. Then, he would go to region’s central town, print them there, and give those photos back according to all adresses and phone numbers he kept.
It was kind of interesting and profitable. So, he kept doing this and then started to shoot weddings. He bought a new camera. He found a videographer, so they worked together. Firstly, couples were coming to our home to see examples of his work. I think, 10 years ago he opened an office, like a studio. He had a couple of computers, and did all the job there. And his major field is a wedding photography.
At his office, he also had a printing machine, which not many people had, and thus Rinat copied and printed documents for money. Sometimes, he would ask his little daughter Emily to come to his office and help with printing/copying/scanning work. Little by little, Emily got introduced to her fathers work as a photographer.
I became his relief in the office. I would come to his lunch breaks, because it was close to my school. Later he taught me how to edit photos and how to shoot, basic rules. He was really annoyed when I was making photos and it wasn’t right. And this is how I started, when I was twelve years.
From that point, it became their family business. Emily’s mother also started working with them on weekends, now Emily’s younger sister, who is 14 year old, helps them with editing, and their little 5-year-old brother is their beloved model. Everything is relatively good now, but Emily is annoyed how her father’s work is underestimated.
There are a lot of young girls who asked their rich dads to buy them semi-professional cameras for 30 thousand rubles($900). They pretend to be photographers and work for really little money. It undervalues my father’s work, because he has a camera for 200 thousand rubles($6000), and clients don’t understand why he has higher prices. Many of clients cannot see the difference in their work.
As Emily said, since there are a lot of unskillful photographers, her father cannot choose with whom to work with, and it is not enjoyable for him anymore. But still, with his other photographer friends, he goes outside of town and takes more interesting pictures of models, family or nature.
I wish all photo cameras got broken and only very skillful photographers, like my father, could take pictures.
This week I talked to Ilko Drenkov, a residence hall director on AUBG campus. I really enjoy being in his office: the whole room is full of drawings, movie posters, some photographs and other picture. Sitting in this cozy room, I wondered what photograph or photographs will he tell me about. Then he showed me these:
Seagulls, free birds, flying on the bright blue sky… Wonderful, isn’t it? He took these pictures by himself during his 3-day trip in the end of May to the Holy Mount Athos, which is in Greece.
“I love nature, being among nature, being connected with nature, feeling nature surrounding us. I have to admit that not always, when I’m in dialog and connection with nature, I have patience or ability to take photos. But I don’t regret, because the feeling remains.”
Not taking pictures is not the biggest problem for Ilko, because just being in nature is a precious experience. But of course, if he has a photo camera, he uses the chance and takes some pictures. “Not hundreds, but dozens, those that I feel precious,” said Ilko.
“On a ferry, on the way back, after enjoying all the bliss of nature, the sacral moment of touching the land of God, on the way back I took photos from the ferry of those seagulls coming around. It was very touching moment. It was a connection. Those unique moments when you feel the complete merge of the universe: the land, the sky, the sea, the humans, – in complete harmony.”
At the ending, Ilko said beautiful words I want to share with you too:
“Seagull – is the free bird, the symbol of freedom. Any bird itself shows us how to we shall behave. I think we shall cherish those lovely moments enjoying nature, having the photos of those precious moments and share. After all, all happiness is happiness because it is shared. And photos could be the mean of sharing.”
Listen to my favorite moments from the interview with Ilko Drenkov!
When I created this blog, I thought that since my question is really concrete, it is going to be easier to create a story. However, I realized that even I myself can’t think of any concrete photograph I like the most. With development and omnipresence of photo cameras, there are too many photos everywhere. We take pictures every day and it is even hard to imagine how many photographs are taken in one day on our planet.
My question also confused Valentine Nykoliuk, a Ukrainian junior student. He just said:“I don’t have any favorite photographs. I’m not that kind of a person.” I had to change the question a little, but how? After some thinking, I had an idea: who doesn’t have a favorite photograph from childhood? Valentine immediately came up with a number of different photographs and he asked his father to scan and send him one of them.
So here we go:
At this picture he is six year old and wears school uniform.
“This is actually the picture from a collection of photos with me and my brother, where we pretend to be main characters of Men in Black,” tells me Valentine. “We were holding toy guns and it was really cool.”
The level of awesomeness of this picture is as high as possible! Valentine’s brother Mark is six years older, but they used to always play together and they had their inside jokes. “Abbreviation “MiB”, which is Men in Black, could also be interpreted as “Марко i Валик”(“Marko and Valik” in Ukrainian).
So, this is a story for this week! Now go and look for your own photographs from childhood, because it was a precious time, one and only experience, and also because we were the cutest people ever.
I remember them seeing together at that time, and they actually looked very good together from the beginning of their relationships.
Frozen moments 