Sun is my light, clouds are my soft boxinterview with Evgeniy Shaman by Alina Savin
A woman made Evgeniy Shaman discover his talent and theatrical vision. And to women does he pay tribute in his photographs. His camera focuses on them just some seconds before they disappear into another reign. He manages to eternalize their fugitive appearance into his imaginative citadel of “drama, sentimentality, hard emotions”, as he says, keeping, in the same time, a moist touch of humanity on their faces. A master of Dark Art, he is in a hurry to create, to ascertain, to show us his innermost visions…
Where did you spend your childhood? Up to 4-6 years I spend my childhood with my grandmother in Moscow, she took care of me while my parents were working. Then some years in different pioneer camps.
Where did you study? I studied in typical Russian school (full 11 classes), then culinary technical school and after in modern humanitarian academy.
Did any experience in your childhood make you decide to take photographs? Recollecting my earliest childhood, I remember that my father had a portable developing case and two old Zeniths (which are still stashed away somewhere in the depths of our household debris). However, at the time, this was not important to me.
Since when do you make photographs? How did you start? In the autumn of 2001 I started as a model. One evening my girlfriend (she was a Nude model) brought me to a studio, to get acquainted - to watch the process, and then have some pictures taken of me. At that photo sessions I understood that I found something very important for me. I continued to be a model (even though I prefer the word “actor” for what I did then), and after a while I was confident that when I would buy my own camera and start to take my own pictures that it would work! I couldn’t wait to try it out. In my head I had a mountain of ideas piling up... In February 2002, my girlfriend and I modeled for Evgeniy Kozhevnikov, an art photographer in Moscow. This session left a profound impression on me. We were supposed to be something like Hitchcock clowns: two women and me. This was the first time that I encountered a photographer who had an excellent ability to work with people and to capture their emotions on film. My conversations and work with this artist were the strongest influence on my artistic development, not only in Art Nude, but also in emotional art photography in general. During the time of our weekly sessions I learned to understand and feel the difference between staged emotions and emotions that have been already experienced, those, which I could remember and relive during the session., in the fall of 2002, I finally went with my photographer-friend to a small shop to buy my first digital camera, a Minolta Dimage 7i.
Do you have any studies of photography? I am self taught. Everything came to me during the course of the work. Actually, my observation is that, in general, many artistic photographers never finished any photo academies…
When did you start to participate to exhibitions? In june 2004 one my friend photographer called me to take part in the exhibition project called Mezhdu” (“In Between”) at the Museum of the Modern Art of Moscow. The same month the art-director of a cinema-theatre the Pioneer offered to me to organize my first author's exhibition which I named Art Insomnia.
Can the title of your exhibition “ART INSOMNIA” be taken as your creative credo? I guess so. I live in a state of creative insomnia. Nights I bring my works to completion, alone with my thoughts and problems. Creativity is, for me, an inseparable part of my daily life. Actually it IS my life, my small, complete world, with its own rules and regulations that intersect in space. In this world there is almost no concept of SLEEP, there is only TIME to CREATE and PRODUCE... My photographs are the carriers of pieces of people’s lives, pieces of their histories, pieces of emotions... this is my life, my insomnia. I’ll get enough sleep in my next one...
The style of your pictures reminds me somehow of Tarkovsky’s scenography: the gloomy background and surroundings turn to something valuable and surprisingly beautiful. But also I see in your pictures some kind of rift, similar to Tarkovsky’s. Maybe there really is a similarity, for example, with Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” world – a gloomy, unidentified world in which everything is changed and displaced. This world has an essence (a mechanism), and is mysterious at the same time. In that world, if you firmly believe in something, then it will happen. Without a doubt, Tarkovsky is a master of his style. My style is Dark Art (a rift towards darkness). I think, it’s much harder to create an impression of coldness, sadness, human pain than of joy and laughter. That’s why I chose this path! That’s why all my backdrops are like a live supplement to the live subjects, just like in Tarkovsky’s work; they play a major role in the general atmosphere...
What means to you to be an artist in Moscow? What means this town to you? It means that I represent all Russian (not particularly one Moscow) free art-photography as others free art-photographers here, just like me. Moscow is for me only the town where I’m living and working. In Russia there are a lot of and other wonderful cities, for example St. Petersburg, in which I often photograph.
How do you describe your artistic evolution? Was it simple, linear? There are so many thoughts in my head, there is so much... Every photographer has his own style of communicating with his model. Some find it easier to tell you what he’d like to see, but leave the model room to improvise while they just take pictures. Others, whom I call “reporters”, just take pictures while they’re talking to the model, without having any specific goal in mind. A third type of photographer has a fixed idea for the shooting and carefully positions each model and each detail. It smothers any initiative the models might have to add something of their own. That’s what I learned during my modeling experiences – I observed, I learned how other photographers work with me, drew my conclusions. Something stayed with me.
What is style? How would you define your style? The style of a photograher is a look at the world which is real and not real in the same time, an echo of his soul through visual art. In February 2002, my girlfriend and I modeled for Evgeniy Kozhevnikov, an art photographer in Moscow. This session left a profound impression on me. We were supposed to be something like Hitchcock clowns: two women and me. This was the first time that I encountered a photographer who had an excellent ability to work with people and to capture their emotions on film. My conversations and work with this artist were the strongest influence on my artistic development, not only in Art Nude, but also in emotional art photography in general. During the time of our weekly sessions I learned to understand and feel the difference between staged emotions and emotions that have been already experienced, those, which I could remember and relive during the session. I myself discovered my own style immediately. Because for me as for any art-photographer it is much harder to create an impression of coldness, sadness, human pain than of joy and laughter. That’s why I chose this path!
What is the origin of your photographs? Intuitive perception of people to me interesting and carry of the invented and real worlds (histories) to the shots.
Your photographs look like paintings. Why? What means painting to you? My method is to touch up photographs on the computer and using digital photographic manipulation (DPM), or to do this manually on the raw prints. Of course the artistry itself is an inseparable part of the scenario, of the creation of the images during the shoot. I mean the clothes, the decorations, the make-up, etc. It’s good that now DPM art photography is enjoying an improving reputation, and that it doesn’t matter whether the picture is manipulated on a computer or manually, whether it’s a film or a digital file. The important thing is that the artist has put his soul into his work, his emotions, and that they are seen and valued.
Did you ever try to paint? Are your photographs a sort of painting? I have been connected to the visual arts pretty much all my life. It started when I was about thirteen years old, at a Young Pioneers’ camp: there there was an art circle, in which we painted on wood and on metal. I usually painted flowers. My early photoworks are a mix of a photo and hand / digital paintings.
What are your favorite themes? All without landscapes and macro.
The dream-like images are very important to you. Do you get inspiration from your dreams, visions? Certainly, in fact imaginations and dreams – are the basic components of my creativity.
You seem to prefer the black-and-white photographs. Why? Is the contrast more evident? Because BW photo has no borders in time and space, it’s more interesting for many photographers and watchers.
What is the human body for you? What do you discover in it? Is the human body more beautiful when naked? Basically I work in all existing genres using techniques of manipulation of digital photography: Nude, portrait, genre, cityscape, sometimes still life. But mostly I work in Art Nude - the combination of nude figures with everything that exists in nature and with everything that our fantasies can generate. Just a beautiful body is not a sufficient indicator for me. For me, a very important and non-negligible factor is a deep inner world of a person, his inner artistic spirit, emotionality, sensitivity, and, of course, understanding my own self as an art photographer, understanding what I want to create.
Describe the process that gives birth to your images. Sun is my light, clouds are my soft box, streets and destroyed buildings are my photo scene, emotional and deep people are the process…
What does it mean to you to use digital techniques? What does the modern techniques mean to you? Good camera and lenses are just a transfer of the image in the shots, though quality of the image certainly plays a greater role for me.
What camera do you use? What lens? What Photoshop? For 1,5 years now, I shoot with a Nikon D70 with two lenses: a Sigma AF 17-35 mm f/2.8-4 EX ASPHERICAL and a Nikkor 50 f/1.8D. For processing the image I use Photo Shop 7.0.
In Romania, it is quite difficult to be a photographer (and an artist, in general). What is the situation in Russia? so there was also I consider it as the truth that the Russian artists and photographers one of the best all over the world. It is connected with our history, with political and economic conditions of a life in our country. Therefore we feel all at differently other level, more deeply, more sensually. About be or not to be a photographer it is a choice personally everyone but the truth in that in other countries in difference from Russia is more hard to communicate to photographers with potential models to search for them.. All people different, business in ethnic mentality.. Whose photographic works do you like? Most of all: Evgeniy Kozhevnikov, Lena Sergeeva, Igor Amel’kovich, Dmitrii Provotorov, Emil Schildt and others
What was your biggest success until now? Life as a whole and my art for the people in it..
What future plans do you have? Uuu, a lot to do… _______________________________________________________________ CV Born 12.01.1982 in Moscow Exhibitions 2004: 06.06. – 21.06. - Participant in the exhibit project “Mezhdu” (“In Between”) – a collection of works of various photographers and artists, Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art. Awarded a laureate for the exhibit “Masterskaya 20,04” (“Workshop 20,04”) for a series of photographs. 26.06 – 16.07. - ART INSOMNIA (solo exhibit), Film theatre “Pioneer” 04.12. - 18.12. - Co-organizer of the second exhibit of Evgeniy Kozhevnikov’s art photography project – Studium. Awards: Winner of several photography competitions. Several works are in private collections in Russia and abroad. Publications: contributions to various photographic and youth-oriented magazines in Russia: Hard&Soft, Huligan, ProFoto. Anticipated publications: FotoDelo and Times Journal of Photography. Virtual exhibitions and galleries: – represented in more than ten photography portals:
http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=998854 Contact: shamanix@newmail.ru
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