Translated material
I shoot flawlessly!
Top St. Petersburg photographer taught Chelyabinsk colleagues to earn money and glory
“I know that there are photographers and cooler than me, but they do not live in Russia ...” Many domestic knights of the lens think about themselves, but few can publicly declare this. The master of wedding photography Alexander Medvedev makes such statements easily.
Judge of the International Festival of photography “PhotoFest-2012” at his master class in Chelyabinsk taught colleagues to make creativity profitable. This creative meeting was interesting not only to professionals. After all, each of us sooner or later either picks up the camera, or is in front of the lens.
Much of what the photographer, part of the top domestic ten, shared much of what shared, shared, but everything is interesting. The master class preceded a brief autobiographical excursion.
- I started taking pictures 11 years ago. Before that, he took off the KaveEnovsky booze to the "soap dish". That is, I did not take pictures at all. My labor activity was related to computer games and graphics. In this field, he reached a sufficient degree of fame, but ended his career in the cinema. Not in Russian, of course, because he lived in the States. In 2003, the question arose: should I stay in the USA? I realized that I do not want to work for my uncle. He returned to St. Petersburg. He began to think about how to get no less money than in America, but to work for myself and do what I want. I watched the magazine “Photos and Video”, and it suddenly dawned on me: photography is a wonderful way to make a herbarium. I am a young awesome cavity, communicate with cool people ... It turns out that all this can be “dried” and share with many.
The next day I bought myself a film “SLR” and began to remove portraits. In fact, he killed a photographer and began to create images. My feature is young, beautiful, depraved in love of couples and some individual individuals, emphasized sexuality.
I began to “warm” the wedding market and in a few years heated it to a very good state. First, alone, then raised several assistants, whose surnames are known today. Previously, he believed that the wedding photographer is the lower class. Until now, some photographers relate to weddings down. Meanwhile, the wedding photo today is the most developed segment of photographs in Russia in the picture. In this regard, Russian photographers have something to show in the West. But in order for success to come, we must work hard. Our photographer will remove two or three weddings a year and then rushes endlessly with them. I shoot 150 photo shoots in the year ...
It only seems: I bought a “watering can”, broke into an expensive hotel-and the amazing fashion session is ready. In fact, everything is thought out to the smallest detail, a team of professionals creating style works. The shooting itself lasts one and a half to two hours. There is no sense longer - models get tired. The paradox of Medvedev photo shoots is that they are two times more expensive than the camera that he shoots.
- It is convenient to carry a small camera with you. Not heavy and does not scare people, ”Alexander comments. -When you bring a huge “fool” to a person, he is willy-nilled. And when the camera in your hands hides so that it is practically not noticeable, people see you, not her, and behave at ease. If you need to put dust in the eyes, then, of course, you can’t do without a powerful lens. But I need a result.
I know photographers who carry with them many mediocre assistants who create an unnecessary turmoil. The model is even more clamped in the end. But such photographers are convinced that their cost increases the number of assistants. I work, as a rule, alone.
I have an assistant special forces with a car that has no idea what photography is. He just carries me, if necessary - protects and walks after the hamburgers when I am hungry. This is not dust in the eyes. This is a necessity. And if I go to the convertible with the newlyweds, then I just don’t take this person to work with me. The shooting of lovers is a very intimate process. It's like a three -dance.
With photographic illusions, Alexander Medvedev has special scores. By his definition, this is "a certain crap that takes money and time, but does not give anything in return."
- Over the years of professional work, I have formulated and comprehended these illusions. All of them are my own rake. I myself went through them and continue to pass. With each photographer, believe me, this is happening. People are generally very similar. They only think they are very different. It is the illusions that slow down their careers. If not for them, everyone would have been fabulously rich and known for a long time.
So, some photomins debunking Medvedev.
Photography is a set of rules, having learned which you will begin to make masterpieces. Looking through the Internet, it is not difficult to find that there are a huge number of overweight, with lubricated sharpness of photographs included in world annals. That is, everything that is taught in a photo school is broken. But for some reason this does not force to think. A person continues to cram the rules and considers a photo with a ruler.
Today, everyone is already allowing pruning part of the head in the portrait. We would talk about this with artists a hundred years ago. How many indignations would be! Do you know why you can now? Movie. There was no movie a hundred years ago. It was it that accustomed people to the “cut portraits”.
Another criterion: sharply - not sharply. Why is one right, and the other is not? If a photo about how a person in a bar feels, what is right? Any patterns can be followed, or it can be violated. Both that and the other are equal expressive means. The question is what you want to express.
Most photographers do not want to express anything, except that “I had a woman, a cliff and a red rag ...” But when a person is aware of who he takes off, what is the legend, what sensations the audience should experience, oddly enough, the violation of the rules is the best way to express something than following them.
The technique is very important and decides much. Honestly, the success of the photo shoot does not depend on the technique. I shoot in different cameras. Sony-nex with a manual focus does not interfere with taking pictures of a couple running through the streets. Question in skill. Autofocus appeared in the late 70s of the twentieth century. But somehow reporting photos were taken before.
It seems to a person: they will give him a good camera - and the frames will become better. This is self -deception. It is bad when the camera interferes with the photographer. But in most cases, the photographer interferes with the camera.
Art and money are incompatible. Often it is brought to hear on the forums "for money is not art." This point of view was popular in the Soviet Union. In the art history textbook, you can read that the unfortunate Van Gogh died in poverty, because in the decaying West artists are bad. And in the USSR they feel good, they receive Stalin's prizes and do freely.
In fact, in world history there are three or five artists who died in poverty. Just a person chose such a way. Everyone else had servants, two -story houses and lived comfortably. This has nothing to do with art. In fact, great art has always been made for money. Rembrandt bargained like a rare market woman.
Representatives of the shooters corporation once came to him and asked the group portrait. “For twenty guilders, your head will be in the third row,” said the artist. - For forty - I will draw a figure to the waist, and for 60 - the foreground in growth ... ”Does this prevent him from hanging in the leading museums in the world?
There is another often voiced story: "Pay me a million - I’ll take it no worse." The trouble is that everyone takes pictures as they can. If he pays a million, he will remove 20 percent better with fear (and some - 20 percent worse with the same fear). Question: Why take risks a million, giving it to a unverified person when there are tops in the country and in the world from which you can choose professionals?
Photoshop is the best photographer tool. In fact, Photoshop is not a remedy. The tool is the light and the photographer itself. I shoot at the Polaroid, and it is sold well. In modern fashion, professionals immediately photograph coolly. If you are sitting for three days in Photoshop, the earned 30 thousand euros have to be divided into four days. And your colleague, meanwhile, is already doing the third shooting, it becomes more famous and earns more. Photoshop is commercially ineffective. In addition, it is always very clearly visible whether it was removed or “treated”.
At the end of the lesson, I drew the attention of the master to a somewhat aggressive master of master class. Obviously, not everyone appears to everyone.
- And how else, tell me, in two hours to correct people? If a person sits and thinks that everything is fine with him, then why should he change? For such short performances, people go for a kick. It is important that he be in the right direction. My master classes in different cities of the country visit more than 700 people per year. Of course, there are two or three dissatisfied, who will say: "You have not taught me anything." I am absolutely calm about this. But mostly the responses are positive. I teach very high quality. If you came to the car dealership and instead of Ford bought a Chinese car and then, because of this, you are upset, who is a fool here? .. And I do not delete negative comments on the Internet forums, because there is no time to even read them. Six months ahead, all days are painted.
And another myth was finally dispelled by Alexander. The myth that photographers certainly fall in love with their models and sometimes even marry. Well, or ... almost dispelled.
- If the photographers married their models, they could not have shot much. Constantly busy with marriages and divorces.
- That is, your wife was not your model? ..
- I was in due time. But this was not a reason for marriage. There is the concept of “creative love”, and it does not mean at all that you need to run to the registry office. Of course, one thing: the object of your work must be able to admire.