by Dmitry Elizarov interview
A nice talk with the brilliant Saint-Petersburg based photographer, Dmitry Elizarov and a selection of his sensual and stylish work, enjoy!
Know more about Dmitry at instagram.com/dmitryelizarov– www.dmitryelizarov.com
In a few words, tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m a full-time people photographer and a former web designer, born and living in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
How long have you been a photographer?
I had point-and-shoot cameras while traveling even back when I was a kid in the film age. But it was the early 2011, when I first shot a person in the studio on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2, so it’s been close to 5 and a half years now.
How did you discover photography?
I guess I spent some time on photographic community websites before a thought occurred to me that I could try that myself. It were obviously the artistic nudes with few portraits that attracted my attention first. Once you cross the line between being an uninformed envious viewer and and a hardworking artist walking calm around naked women, there’s no going back.
How was your first shooting? What did you shoot?
It’s hard to determine the very first but I’m sure it was something boring and unprofessional at the time. It’s only your best work that you should show.
How would you describe your style?
That’s a difficult topic for me because a) I’m still figuring it out for myself, and b) I’m trying to narrow my rather big variety of genres even inside portraiture alone from pure headshots on white background to glamourous sexy looks with mixed light. So far I figured out that, no matter the setting, I like to build the image around a model’s expression with soft lighting, pure colors, full, yet soft contrast, lots of diagonals and somewhat editorial retouch. The feel that comes out is mostly described as a calm harmony of external shapes and internal personality shown.
What does photography mean to you?
It’s mostly a way of conveying the beauty, a decent line of work for a creative person, and something to be smart about.
What inspires you?
Beautiful and intelligent women can make, of course, for fantastic muses, but the biggest inspiration usually comes from outside the medium: movies, games, painting, architecture or even music.
What would you like to photograph?
For now it comes down to a checklist of several marvelous faces from other countries (Rachel Yampolsky, call me!) or backdrops more complex and uncommon for my area, like sea, mountains or intriguing buildings which I hadn’t yet shot against during my years in the home studio.
A photographer you particularly admire?
To name one, an American, Peter Hurley inspired me the most. The way he not only works with people but shows them as attractive, honest, confident and badass as possible is something to admire. Can’t recommend checking him out enough.
What is happiness?
It’s the best possible result of constant balancing of goals, expectations and outcomes. And I’m honestly surprise you asked this because I’m no good at this :)
If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Actually, I’m not sure I’ve seen enough places to make such a serious decision. People be like, “My city is the best in the world”, and mine is, if fact, pretty cool, but I kinda like Sweden and Scandinavia in general and I also was, in a way, completely fond of Sydney.
What’s your next goal?
I feel like spending this summer shooting outside and more often in landscape format while completing a couple of tricky projects on the way :)
Pictures 1 to 4: Anna Orlova