Special Issue
Nadezhda DEGTIARIOVA:
Georgia, the land
kissed by God…
We have interviewed
Nadezhda Degtiariova,
the Belarusian winner
of the contest.
– Some photographers only care
about becoming the ultimate winner in
a contest. Another medal, another award
certificate to hang on the wall… These
matters have never been of interest to
me. You can call me a shrewd person with
a calculating mind, but if I decide to take
part in a contest, I do it for mercantile
reasons. I got my first SLR camera as a
prize in the contest Minsk Photos. Townspeople. And then in a bid to upgrade my
photo equipment, I chose to take part
in a web journalism contest with a solid
money prize for the winner. The terms
of the contest My Country in the Eastern
Partnership said that the winner of the
first prize would be free to choose the
country of the creative photo tour. That
was a decisive moment for me: I had been
dreaming about Georgia. In the end I was
lucky to visit two countries: we spent five
days in Georgia and three in Azerbaijan.
We were made remarkably welcome,
everything top notch! To tell you the
truth, I would have been happy with less
classy hotel accommodation to save the
money for extending the duration of the
en plein air sessions proper. I would very
much want to have the trip extended!
The shortage of time grew exceptionally
acute in Azerbaijan. We arrived in Baku
late in the evening. Of course, we had a
chance to shoot panoramas, but I do not
practice this type of photography. My
ultimate preference is street photography – I like photographing people. The
next day we stayed in Baku only till the
noon. So little time earmarked for such a
beautiful city!
In Georgia we were able to take pictures both in villages and in the houses of
the local people, and to touch base with
the locals. On trips like that in addition
to planned activities I would prefer to
have some time reserved for solo photo
experience. There are things that a photographer cannot shoot in a crowd. When
all photographers stand side by side, they
shoot the same things. I agree that one
will take a picture of one and the same architectural object, for instance, a church,
in a personal way prompted by inspiration, but still!
– So what are your impressions of
the sights?
– Well, the impressions are extremely
positive! There was little time left for
Azerbaijan, but Baku is just an incredible city! Now they are into landscape
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