Translated material
Standing still, you go back
He calls himself "generation of tobacco and alcohol"
Sergey Dovlatov loves to repeat this phrase, but authorship belongs to the American poet Oden. “Everything from them, from the great. And so, I got tanned, ”laughs a member of the jury of the International Festival“ Photo Fest-2012 ”, the master of extreme photography Alexander Efremov, who does not release a cigarette from his hands. A journalist, photojournalist, editor, author of many books and winner of prestigious photographic awards cannot stand the words “Photo Side” and “Saker”. Prefers the futosal synonyms for “shooting” and “landscape”. He is generally a futile man. Well, if, of course, not to take piquant mustache on the expense ...
- How long have you been "Salvador" antennae?
- This is a very funny story. I had a workshop in the center of Moscow, in the wards of the XVII century. Somehow a friend comes. It is necessary, he says, to remove you for one project. If he takes place, then I will tell everything. The dressing room made me a mustache, a friend - a portrait ... 15 years have already passed, but I still do not know why it was. But I liked the idea with a mustache.
Efremov believes in the misunderstanding of meetings. He tells about the people with whom fate has brought and made friends with rapture. With the famous landscape photographer Alexei Vasiliev, they met on the way to the Grushinsky festival of the author’s song in 1985.
- You see, not every day you will meet a person with a “Hasselblad” on his neck in an electric train. I got hooked, met, still friends. In 1990, we were in Ingushetia on the set of landscapes. Several dangerous moments finally rally our friendship. Now you remember with humor, and then it was not laughing. We shot old auls from where the people were evicted. I had to walk through the pass. In the place of the last parking, it suddenly fell snow. Alexey went to the mountains and disappeared, did not return to the control time. When I appeared two hours later, I was beside myself! You can understand my condition. There is no means of communication. It is useless to scream, because he went in the direction from where the wind blows. It turned out that under a pebble, a charge of snow was waiting. The charge is a 15-minute forces with a strong wind. But the photos turned out to be good. We took off each other's portraits, it turned out very funny. Instead of a beard - a piece of ice, which only after two hours of sitting by the fire thawed.
In the mid-90s, he left journalism. He called his departure to the advertising shooting “free flight”, despite the fact that advertising is always satisfied with regulated.
“There was a need to make money,” comments the master. - And then there were many orders, and I could choose: to remove - not to remove. This is convenient when the owner is his own. Vasiliev and I had a major order from the Cherepovets City Hall, an album about the city. We received a solid amount at that time - 16 thousand dollars for two. I went to Germany, bought equipment. With Vasilyev, we traveled a lot around Russia, then abroad, to landscapes. He is already in seventy. However, now, it happens, we go on kayaks. Of course, he can no longer carry the severity of the marching, I do it for him. But the firewood for the fire saws perfectly!
The sea for Efremov is not just a picturesque nature, taking into account the presence of a “sailor passport”. Apparently, it is he who obliges the photographer to walk the shouting ...
- Ritout? - Alexander is surprised. - May be. I did not notice. I was at sea three times and I want again. He traveled on wooden sailing ships - remarks of ancient ships. Long transitions through the White Sea-Baltic Canal, Ladoga, Onega, Baltic ... went to French Brest. I was listed as a cocoon for a ship, although I did not cook food. There was an Admiral watch, which from zero hours to four in the morning. Impressions and pictures are a huge number! You come from the trip - there is a hard selection. Each time you not only put your bar, but also raise it. Because if you stand still, then ... you go back. And it doesn’t matter-this is a photograph or some other creativity.
Alexander Efremov - Head of Phototurov. There is a deep misconception of participants in such trips: the leader should bring to the point from which everyone will remove the masterpiece. But “on the landscape” this does not happen.
“In the same Ingushetia, we went to the same point three times on different days and took off three different frames,” my interlocutor recalls. - One frame is just a postcard, the other is a little more interesting, and the third is a real masterpiece that is not a shame to show at the exhibition.
A masterpiece is when the picture begins to cling not only the look, but also the soul. Although "postcards" is also the case necessary. For guides, for example. By and large, we all photograph ourselves, our attitude to the world, to reality. Vasiliev and I later looked at photographs shot by the same lenses from one point ... And the frames are different! Because we are different people. If you cannot distinguish one photographer from another by work, these are bad photographers. We will never confuse, opening the text and not seeing the author, Pushkin and Brodsky, the music of Bach and Rachmaninov, Peterson and Brubek, if jazz performers talk about. And photographers are also impossible to confuse if we are talking about masters. Rallies take off a huge number of people. But I always clearly know when I see a photo, this is the work of Yura Kozyrev. Well, it is impossible to confuse his handwriting with anything!
Efremov himself has no professional interest in rallies.
- This is an extreme of a different nature. You see, when you pass hot spots ... They shot at me at Baku, it was scary. Once I went to shoot the barracks. Nearby stands a five -story building, linen is dried on a rope. In the center of the house is an arch, in the arch - a tank. Such a contrast. And next to the white “Volga”, shot down by an automatic burst, and flowers are on it. Frame! Ready! But this arch is a machine gunner. And he opens the fire ... did not hit, thank God. Rallies ... There are certain difficulties there. I shot them at one time on the instructions of the editorial office. And now I go there like an ordinary person. I shoot, of course, but more for myself.
A separate topic is shooting at low temperatures. The equipment will not endure frost. And his fingers will not endure his long time. Even for the sake of a white bear in the frame.
- When you shoot the Arctic, where minus 45, there are a lot of problems of a technical nature. But on the land of Franz Joseph, I remember that even something decent was possible to photograph. The bear, thank God, was lucky not to meet. It is better to stay from such "guys" at a respectful distance. I saw a bear, but very far. And the wind, for good luck, blew from him to us. Not all cameras worked there. Hasselblad, for example, froze. Like hands. Now I found a way out. You know, there are such thin simple gloves that jewelers use. Really saving from frost! When shooting, it is important not to lose the sensitivity of the fingers. And on top of the mittens. I took it - put them on. Last winter, I took pictures of a rally on Sakharov Avenue in such gloves. He walked like an aristocrat (laughs). At the same time, he himself turned out to be a model for many colleagues-reciprocers. Some thought I was showing off ... And it’s just very convenient.
"Control walk." Photo by Alexander Efremov
The myth that the real masters of photos are not used, Efremov categorically debunks.
- I think this is nonsense! Photoshop is exactly the same tool as a photo enlightener. Simply, if earlier when printing photos in the laboratory, we spoiled our hands with different solutions, today we are sitting at the monitors and spoiling our eyes. The whole difference. It is important that the tool does not delight. I use photoshop when I collect a panorama from separate pieces. But at the master class no one notices that the panorama is collected. The photographer must be able to. The issue of the appropriateness and quality of the application of skills. When you print black and white pictures, dust dust falls. This is insanely annoying. Another unpleasant moment: it happens that you can drop the negativity in your own laboratory and walk your feet. In the old days you take brushes, scrapers, paints, retouch. The process is time-consuming, a day or two ... That's what another photoshop is good. In addition, the retail there is completely invisible.
Efremov dreams of visiting Antarctica. And the point is not even in the penguins (whoever just did not shoot them), they attract majestic landscapes. And on Hawaii it would be interesting to hunt for lava. The lava field is like a broken glass field. How to follow it? It is necessary to figure out.
When Alexander studied at the institute, he visited a section of mountaineering, and he remembered the advice of the leader for his life. The first - climbers are only with insurance, without insurance - fools. The second is when you go somewhere, you must first “look through the eyes”. In other words, first it is necessary to turn on the brains. It is always useful. When you think through everything “on the shore”, the risk is minimal. And there is such a word "instruction". For some reason, our person treats them without proper attention, not understanding that some of them are written in blood. Each person perceives the word "extreme" in his own way. For someone to spend the night in the forest in a tent-already beyond the line of the possible. Give such a person a five -star luxurious hotel, I do not agree to four stars. And for Efremov, the norm is extreme “with the brains on”.
-If the student took off something better than you, be upset or rejoice? ..
- I will be happy, of course. It's great! I will say more: some former students became my friends. Olya Shpak, for example. In fact, he and Alexei Vasiliev are co -authors of my eleventh book “Photography in extreme conditions”, which is preparing for printing. Olga is a professional biologist, candidate of sciences, writes a doctoral. She is engaged in the shooting of animals, marine mammals, and this is the other side of the coin. You see, a warehouse with a length of 6 meters can easily eat a boat and get the steering along with the photographer between business. And the 11-meter Greenland whale can simply raise the boat during surfacing. There are a lot of difficulties in such a shooting. And Olga also conducts the livestock counting, for which it flies on a specially equipped aircraft. Along the way, aeropeizers are shooting. Imagine a frame. White birds fly against the backdrop of a sandy beach ... We are used to seeing them from below, and here - a look from above. And these birds discard black shadows on the sand. Stunning pictures! Here is an honest word - I am enviable! Copying teachers is stupid. Fortunately, my students go their own way.