You do a lot of conceptual photography where you stage scenes, what started you on staging
conceptual photographs?
I combine staged photography with real situations. I don't like images, where you see at first
glance that the image is staged. I love to find this special magic thing in the image, which you
cannot explain. But I also don't like photographs that are pure reportage, because there is not
enough personality inside. Mixing your personality and the real world in combination is what is
most interesting for me.
You have a wonderful gallery titled “Time in Between”, surreal staged photographs of moments
that seem without beginning or end. Why did you pursue this particular project?
I got this idea already by the year 2000, when I first visited Russia, but I realized this project
only in 2005 as I was finishing my diploma project for my university. I was fascinated by these
real-life situations[of people waiting] in the public spaces of Moscow. They were hard for me to
understand, there was something strange and mysterious for me. So I tried to express exactly that
feeling which I had felt.
By the way these images are only minimally staged.
You use a lot of juxtaposition in your photographs, meaning capturing two contradictory
subjects in the same image, often putting the lighter side of life next to the dark. Why the
juxtaposition?
I love these contrasts and I think that life is pretty similar. You never only have good things and you
never only have bad things. Everything plays together. I also like to confuse people, because then
you make them start thinking.
42 | PicsArt Monthly