Hall of Fame. Andrey Kamenev Andrey Kamenev photographer biography
ANDREY KAMENEV , one of the most famous Moscow photographers, admits: “I am always dissatisfied with myself as a professional. But this is normal: you just have to feel complete satisfaction - that's it, the end. " For 15 years, he traveled around 70 countries, covered more than four million kilometers. He lived with a tribe of cannibals in Papua New Guinea, dived under the ice at the North Pole, descended into Mexican caves, and fished pearls in the Philippines. “It is not enough to be in love with your work, - says Andrey, - you need to know the object of love. You shoot underwater - learn to scuba dive, you shoot mountaineering - be so kind as to go up to a height of six thousand meters with everyone. "
Roads, like people, are different everywhere. They can tell a lot about those who built them, about the places that they cross. Roads connect civilizations and cultures, like the Great Silk Road, which for centuries served as a trading bridge between West and East. Or they contain a whole era, like the Appian Way in Rome, remembering the heavy tread of the ancient legionaries ...
Text Andrey Kamenev Photos Andrey Kamenev
Roads sooner or later had to appear in my biography - traveling the world, I traveled a total of almost a million kilometers. At some point, all these distances and routes began to move from the geographical plane to the existential one. I began to perceive the endless change of scenery outside the car window - mountains, deserts, tropics - as my life path, my path. And two years ago I decided to shoot them on purpose.
Along the way, I got so carried away by the topic that I even began to build some kind of ratings: the most famous roads, such as the Trans-Siberian Railway, which crosses eight time zones. Or unusual, like in Banff - Canada's oldest national park. I was surprised by the contrast of untouched nature (even fallen trees are not removed) and the only ultra-modern track. Other roads are remembered for their record length, like the Ural highway (M-5), which stretches from Moscow through Ryazan, Penza, Samara, Ufa to Chelyabinsk. Today it is the only highway connecting the West Siberian part of Russia with the Central European one.
China, Tibet
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
The last pass before Everest, height - 5300 meters. A real serpentine road, 48 sharp turns. Only recently these dizzying bends were equipped with "bumpers" - and now the descent from the pass has become safer. In good weather, five eight-thousanders of the Himalayas are visible here.
Path to the temple
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
Russia, Karelia, Solovetsky dam
The boulder road connecting Bolshoy Solovetsky Island and Muksalma Island was built by monks in the century before last. How much effort it took (individual stones weigh up to several tons) is a mystery. In addition, the dam is thought out from an engineering point of view: arches are made under the water, and therefore it is not afraid of the ebb and flow.
Arteries of the metropolis
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
Thailand, Bangkok
One of the many ultra-modern highways in the capital of Thailand. The number of highways meeting the latest technical requirements in this not the richest country in Southeast Asia is impressive. The traffic here is non-stop, reminiscent of a giant river of colored lights at night.
Russia, Lake Baikal
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
The Baikal ice is up to a meter thick in January, and cars run on it until mid-April. This route can be used to cut a piece of the Irkutsk-Ulan-Ude highway. But only an experienced driver will decide on this. The fact is that many cracks are often hidden under a dense layer of snow.
To the sandy peaks
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
USA, Colorado, Great Sand Dunes
Gigantic masses of sand, up to 200 meters high, changing outlines literally before our eyes, is a one-of-a-kind attraction. All this can be seen without leaving the highway.
Through forests and swamps
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
Russia, Terskiy coast of the Kola Peninsula
Its total length is about 500 kilometers, most of it is already beyond the Arctic Circle. The local landscape is surprisingly beautiful and majestic, despite the fact that there are many swamps and wetlands. This road leads to the Kruglaya hill. Time is mid-June. In Moscow, the lilacs have already faded, but here in some places there is snow and even the buds have not blossomed.
Above is only heaven
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
China, Tibet, Chomolungma Park
The road leading to Everest passes at an altitude of five thousand meters. In the tradition of the Tibetans - to decorate the most important places for them with prayers on pieces of cloth that resemble colored flags. Each prayer has a specific color.
Curves of the tropics
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
Indian Ocean, Reunion Island
The road leading to the Piton de la Fournaise volcano (3069 meters above sea level). It is not clear how heavy equipment was delivered here, to such a height, when the road was being built. It is extremely dangerous to ride on it - a continuous serpentine with 180-degree turns. In addition, there is a lot of rainfall here, and the road is slippery all year round.
Protected routes
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
Canada, Jasper National Park
It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the few untouched corners of the planet that needs to be preserved for posterity. Ancient glaciers and lakes, evergreen forests, gigantic mountains. Only this freeway reminds of civilization.
Monument Valley (USA, Utah)
Photo: Andrey Kamenev
It owes its Martian landscape to the red sandstone deposited here over millions of years.
IGOR GAVRILOV Is one of the most sought-after Russian photographers: there is not a single serious world publication that does not publish his work. Works that touch everyone looking at them so much that even the Iron Lady could not resist seeing his report from Armenia in the newspaper The Independent. This was the first and last time Margaret Thatcher was seen crying.
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"Light, color, composition and other components are photographic, this is picturesque"
Photographer
A person can be talented and in demand in many professional fields, the only problem is not to be afraid to make a choice. And in general, and in the little things. Proof of this is the amazing fate of the fashionable metropolitan photographer Vladimir BYAZROV. He is only thirty years old, and he seems to have everything: a dizzying career - from a provincial boy-amateur photographer to a status star portraitist, constant orders from leading metropolitan media, a voluminous portfolio with glossy covers. But the main thing is the love of his “sharp-character” characters, whom Vladimir knows how to see, understand, make different all the time and always very beautiful. All in all, his life is a ready-made script for a solid blockbuster. Vladimir BYAZROV told about professional little things in an interview with “Photodelo”.
Vladimir
Byazrov
Show business portrait photographer
He grew up in the city of Ordzhonikidze in North Ossetia, where there were only three photo salons in the whole city - with huge wooden cameras that were filmed on plates. The atmosphere of these salons - light, cameras, the smell of chemistry - fascinated the teenager, and young Byazrov tried to come up with reasons to get into these studios, to learn how to take photographs.
Contrary to his vocation, Vladimir Byazrov received not a photographic, but a legal education, graduating from the law faculty of the North Ossetian State University, after which he worked as a law teacher in Moscow for a year.
He was involved in marketing and at twenty-five he gave up a successful career as a Panasonic manager to finally take up photography professionally.
I bought myself a regular camera, made a portfolio of pictures of friends and tried to get a job in some newspaper. For a long time he received rejections, but in the end, Vladimir was taken as a photo editor in the magazine "Finance". He filmed politicians, economists, businessmen - made official portraits and reports from various meetings. Of the first twenty issues of the Finance magazine, 17 covers were photographs taken by Byazrov. So he became a cover photographer.
He began photographing celebrities of film, music and show business. Among his models are Vlad Topalov, Timati, Sergey Lazarev, Malinovskaya. Dima Bilan with photos of Byazrov went to win Eurovision.
Stars are sometimes difficult and always wonderful material for a photographer. Cover photographer Vladimir Byazrov is one of the few people who managed to fully realize their childhood dream.
"Boy, let's get out of here ..."
Vladimir, you grew up in the city of Ordzhonikidze, North Ossetia. This, of course, is not Moscow with its capabilities, however, there must have been photographers from whom one could learn the skill?
There were only two or three salons of classic studio photography in the city, with curtains in the background, with huge wooden cameras filmed on plates. All the photographers were Armenians, lame and fat. Non-Armenian photographers did not exist in my childhood imagination. Of course, I tried by hook or by crook to get into these photo studios. But, being a very shy child, I could not explain to adults my heightened interest by the fact that I was attracted by this whole atmosphere: light, cameras, the smell of chemistry. Therefore, all the time I had to pretend that I came to be photographed. During each visit, I tried to figure out how the photograph was taken.
What did the masters answer?
They said: "Boy, go from here." So there was no question of any consultations.
However, your mom probably noticed the child's interest in photography?
Yes, she saw it, but she didn't take it seriously. Mom never asked me to go to a photo club, and therefore I did not know about their existence. I was an ordinary child who studied, played football, studied in a theater studio, sang in a choir ... And also constantly got into trouble, broke glasses, fought with boys. In addition, I was quite emotional, and every time I was pushed in the shoulder, I could not think of anything better than to beat the offender. When you grow up as a boy among boys, authority matters a lot. Much later, I realized that authority is gained in slightly different ways.
"You have no chance"
Despite your craving for art, you graduated from the law faculty of the North Ossetian State University ...
I must say that I not only graduated from the university, but also decided to go to Moscow to enroll in graduate school at Moscow State University. I was in Moscow for the first time at the age of twelve and, walking along the streets of the capital, I firmly decided that when I grow up, I will definitely come here to live. Since then, I just waited for the moment when the opportunity presented itself. On the day of my graduation, I bought myself a plane ticket. There was not even a corner in Moscow. However, this did not stop me, because there were healthy boyish ambitions available - to come to the Faculty of Law at Moscow State University and go to graduate school. At first I thought that there would be no problems, but they still appeared. At the first conversation, the dean of the law faculty, without even looking at my diploma, but only hearing where I was from, said: "Boy, you have no chance." I asked him what to do if I still want to study further. The dean advised me to work for a year as a lawyer and at this time go to the library and replenish my knowledge. And so I did: I responded to the very first ad “we need a lawyer”. The place of work was the technical college at MEPhI, the faculty of business and law. I gave the students a year's course of lectures, took their exam, and left with them.
Vladimir, what kind of teacher were you?
I was undemanding. The students loved me very much, we constantly laughed with them. I taught only those who wanted to learn: I helped, gave literature. All the other bums did not annoy me at all, on the contrary, we had fun from the heart.
"I offer the services of a photographer"
After you stopped being a lawyer, did the era of photography begin?
No, first I went into marketing - I worked for an American corporation. Then I was invited to Panasonic. My career went uphill, but before signing a long-term contract and leaving for Osaka for an internship in Japan, I suddenly realized that all this was not really for me. I was twenty-five years old and had to make a decision. On reflection, I decided that I would quit Panasonic, buy an apartment and become a photographer. And if it doesn't work, I'll put on the white shirt and lawyer's tie again. By the way, the tie always pressed on my neck, and the cuffs of my white shirt got dirty. And in general, if not for photography, then I would definitely hang myself from these numbers and formulas. And although I was well aware that I still had a very meager portfolio, consisting mainly of pictures of friends and girlfriends, I still dared to quit. Shop prices were low and I thought I would live off my supplies for quite a while. But, oddly enough, after a month the money ran out.
Then I posted my ads on the Internet: "I offer the services of a photographer." It was a rather naive step, but I didn't know how it's usually done. I didn’t have friends-photographers who would believe in me, invited me to be an assistant, gave the first order. In short, the ads that I scattered across the web did not bring a single client. I remember that at that time I had to divide the rubles in my pocket for a week to buy only a loaf of bread and a bag of Chinese noodles a day.However, the photographer is not primarily looking for clients, but equipment ...
I bought my first camera with money from the sale of a gold watch, which my godmother gave me for graduation. It was an EOS 50 with a poor stock lens, and later acquired an EOS 3.
Gallop across Europe
And yet, could you not despair and wait for your first client?
It was not exactly a client, but it was this person who introduced me to the photographic workshop. One day, while working out in the gym, I noticed a man lying under a barbell. He was crushed so hard that he could not even ask for help, he only lay there, half-dead, red as a cancer. I ran up and removed the barbell from him. The man came to his senses and said to me in English: "Thank you very much, you saved me." He turned out to be an American photographer who had come to Moscow to shoot. This was the first photographer I met. His name was B. Gallop. I told him that I, too, although I could not yet call myself a photographer in full measure. As it turned out, his camera broke down and he doesn't know what to do, except to carry it to the service center ... "Can you help?" - he asked. Naturally, I agreed. It turned out that he had the same camera as mine, and the “eye tracking” function did not work. I immediately understood what was the matter: this function needs to be calibrated to suit your eyes. Apparently, as a professional photographer, he decided to immediately work with the camera, and not read the instructions. I explained to him that the device is not broken, but the whole thing is in calibration. He set up this feature and was happy there were no repairs. We immediately decided to go to a cafe and celebrate this event with a cup of coffee. During the conversation, he complained about the lack of a good coordinator in their team. A large film crew came with him: directors, assistants, models ... But none of them spoke Russian. Any chatterbox could handle the task before me, and I happily agreed to help. [Vladimir speaks English as fluently as Russian]. After filming, the guys left, and I received the first "near-photographic" money. And then a miracle happened: after a while I received an e-mail, which said: "Vladimir Byazrov, we would like to invite you to work in Prague as a photographer."
By this time, you probably already had a large portfolio?
I didn't have it at all. At that time, I only had amateur photographs. I went to magazines, modeling agencies, but everywhere they said the same thing: “Boy, you need to find professional models, a stylist, a make-up artist, a studio, competently assemble all these components, shoot on high-quality film, and then bring the material to us. And we are not interested in the photos of your friends. "
And with this in mind, did you still go to Prague as a professional photographer?
I went, only not to Prague, but to Paris. It was there that the organizers moved the shooting. I was so happy that I didn't even ask about money. But what can I say - I myself would gladly pay for the opportunity to shoot in Paris! Soon the express delivery service brought me an invitation, I made a visa, got tickets, and flew to Paris. Then everything was like a dream. I was greeted as a VIP and driven in a huge jeep to a luxury hotel at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Of course, the boy's roof was blown off completely from happiness. It seemed to me that I was in a fairy tale or won the lottery. In the evening - a restaurant, then a reception with a producer, an acquaintance with a multinational film crew from America, the Czech Republic, France and other countries, again a buffet ...
Did you know who you should thank for this tale? Who gave the recommendations?
My natural shyness sometimes gets in my way. I'm afraid to clarify some nuances, because I think: what if I should know this anyway? I still don't ask many questions. And then I did not ask how they found out about me.
Working in magazines
How did the shooting go in the end?
And there was no filming. The fact is that the organizers have ordered many models from Prague and could not bring this group due to visa problems. While there were negotiations on the import of models, I was offered a few days to enjoy Paris. They apologized, provided them with travel allowances in the amount of four hundred euros per day and a car with a driver. I immediately let go of the driver and enjoyed Paris in splendid isolation.
A week later it became clear that the models would not arrive. Filming was postponed indefinitely. They once again apologized to me, gave a huge pile of money, which I counted only in Moscow. For a boy who was “smartly skipped”, I was “paid” an unrealistically huge amount of money - four thousand euros. It is no wonder that I returned to my homeland with a feeling of complete self-confidence.
Having firmly decided that it was necessary to seriously take up the search for work, and not passively wait, I collected my photographs, found the addresses of the editorial offices of various newspapers and magazines on the Internet, and went to interviews. I was denied by Kommersant, Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and Moskovsky Komsomolets said that they did not need photographers, but they had a job as a photo editor, and if one of the photographers left, then they would take me on position. I start work. Time passed, but no one was going to go anywhere. I had to resume the search.
Soon it became known to me that a new magazine "Finance" was opening. I brought my portfolio there, and the editor-in-chief Oleg Anisimov, without hesitation, took me to a position that combined the duties of a photographer and a photo editor.
I worked there for a long time, about two years. It was a wonderful time, a time of fulfillment of a cherished dream. It is me, a boy from North Ossetia, photographing the top officials of our state, all visiting foreign celebrities! An absolute delight! Finally, I started working as a photographer for money, professionally. He shot stars, but not in a glamorous style, but in the genre of reportage. In total, about twenty issues were published during the work, of which seventeen photographs on the covers were mine. And everything would be fine, but the salary was very low. For a while, I agreed to that kind of money, because I needed to get on my feet, master technical skills, make connections ... However, the conversation about a salary increase was inevitable. After some time, I approached Oleg and said that I would like to receive more, but it turned out that the magazine had no intentions to raise the salaries of its employees. Then I again went on a free flight, but now the portfolio was much larger and more interesting. There were invitations from many magazines, but I didn't want to be a photo editor again, I was going to do only photography. The search continued until I found the publishing house Game Land. And although I understood that Game Land might not be interested in a topic that I really would like to deal with, when asked what I want to shoot, I honestly answered that I want to work with the “stars”. But everything coincided very harmoniously and successfully: it turned out that the publishing house had just bought the magazine and its theme - popular music, and they just needed a photographer. An agreement was signed for a relatively small salary, but they promised not to limit me in working with other magazines and participating in creative projects."Stellar" nebulae
I suspect working with the stars is fun, but not easy?
I'm always a little nervous with the stars. Unfortunately, some Russian stars are not professional people in terms of emotions. They, as a rule, do not know how to control themselves. And this is a rather big problem, because although I am a gentle and kind guy, but still from the Caucasus, which means I am emotional. Sometimes it is hard to resist the urge to say: "Come on!" Of course, in this case we are talking about some situations that go beyond the norms of decency, adequacy, elementary education, that is, about baseless whims. For example, some "stars" are late for shooting, sometimes they don't come. Dima Bilan may not come to the agreed shooting several times, and then appear a week later, be seriously late and declare that he has ten minutes for everything. In such cases, I do not postpone the shooting, because I want to be as professional as possible in my field. The last time I shot Dima for the cover of Neon magazine. The shooting lasted only twenty minutes. He liked the photos and went with them to Eurovision.
What situations can really throw you off balance?
As a rule, I keep my temperament within limits, but sometimes ... The first acquaintance with my deeply beloved Seryoga Lazarev was not entirely pleasant. The shooting was very difficult. Sergei came with a huge team of PR people, directors, assistants, assistants. I am calm about the presence of a large number of people in the studio, because when you work with a model, you abstract. And therefore, if an artist is comfortable when close people are on the stage, I have nothing against it. But in this case, they all intervened continuously in the work process: they told Sergei how to look, how to turn. When they finally pissed me off, I said: "Guys, if we don't work anymore, then goodbye." Serega was upset: "Well, how is it, I give myself all over ..." He really was not to blame for the situation, but I could not contain my anger. Instead of “hush up” the conflict, PR people and assistants began to tell me that my career was over. Their threats did not touch me in the least. Of course, that day we said goodbye to Sergei rather coldly. However, the photos came out very good, and two weeks later he was back in my studio. And since then I have photographed him many times, and the story of our first acquaintance is remembered only in a humorous context.
Without a doubt, situations of open conflict are quite rare. More often, there are problems not with the star herself, but with her environment. Celebrities themselves, as a rule, first demonstrate their distrust of the photographer - but only until they see the finished pictures.
Once I had to shoot one of the soloists of the "Cream" group. At the beginning of the shooting, she behaved very strangely: she did not greet, she came with a bodyguard who did not let me into the studio until she changed. But I resigned myself to all these oddities, since my direct customer was nearby. When the filming process began, I simply applied the usual tactics of someone who wanted to please a person: I praised my model's dog, her little things, her hair, and she, forgetting about distrust, smiled.Vladimir, if we return to the questions about whims, which of them, in your opinion, can be considered justified?
Take Zhanna Friske, for example. She is a sweet, affable girl. Of course, Zhanna is emotional, and is well aware that she is a famous person, but she never allows herself unnecessary emotions for no apparent reason. Agree, anyone will get nervous if the makeup artist or stylist does not understand his desires. Somehow it turned out something like this, because the makeup artist did not have some kind of tool to make her hair. In my opinion, such whims are normal. Anyone, let alone a public person, has the right to look his best.
Or remember Sergei Zverev. He is a very striking character, and therefore his photographs cannot but be interesting. Seeing that I was filming Zverev, many ask the question: "How do you work with him, he's so capricious!" In fact, the image that he promotes does not at all correspond to his true essence. Of course, he has his own strictly defined image, beyond which it is impossible to go beyond - a special look, branded gestures, a glamorous style of clothing. But Sergei Zverev always works great with the photographer, participates in the process, gives all the best on the set, and also has an enviable sense of humor, so shooting with his participation will be remembered forever.About professionalism
Do you think the professionalism of an artist depends on age?
It depends on the individual, not age. Girls from the Tatu group are proof of this. During their recent concerts in St. Petersburg, I made a photo report about their life, worked with them literally from morning to evening. I must say that the girls are completely different in character. Julia is emotional, Lena is calm. And if Lena "feeds" on Yulia's energy, then Yulia borrows peace from her partner. It is easy and interesting to work with them precisely because of their naturalness and professionalism, which consists in acting like a star on the one hand at the right moment on stage, and like ordinary girls on the other. They understand that if they don't make contact with me, then the report will most likely turn out to be one-sided.
What do you think are the limits of a photographer's creative freedom? How free is he to do what he wants, and not what is required of him?
It depends on situation. I have such a nuance in my work: every time I want to try something new, for example, use a non-standard lighting scheme. In such cases, the result may be the most unexpected. I had a not very pleasant experience with Masha Malinovskaya. For all my tender attitude towards her, I must admit that she is not an easy person. I shot Masha for the cover of SYNC magazine. The subject of the shooting is "Electronic Jungle", so telephones, small cameras, computers must have been present in the frame. We made a real jungle out of them, hung them on the fishing line from the ceiling, and Masha had to portray an Amazon. I thought for a long time how to shoot it. Objects give shadows, light is not television, and softboxes have a finite diameter. Thus, it is impossible to uniformly illuminate the panorama completely. Suddenly something clicked in my head, and instead of normal glamor, I decided to shoot a genre dynamic photography. It was assumed that if suddenly something goes wrong, then you can always "take photoshop". When Masha came, I explained to her the essence of the matter. “You,” I say, “Amazon, make your way through the jungle. One should feel movement, struggle in photography ”. She completed the task without any problems and asked to show what happened. She didn't like the result, because in the process of filming, being carried away by the image, she could not keep track of some of the nuances. It was a two-hour cry, but Masha turned out to be a professional, did not leave, but took the art director's reins into her own hands. Glamorous light and motionless posture were her prerequisites. As a result, I put Masha in the foreground, put one softbox slightly higher and at an angle, and did not highlight the background. It turned out to be a wonderful session, and most importantly - Masha was satisfied.
And here is another case when my desire to take good pictures went against other people's rules. The incident happened a few years ago at a Whitney Houston concert. The place for photographers was allocated very far from the stage. In general, I don't like filming concerts. A completely different matter is communication in the dressing room, backstage, the opportunity to make a good psychological portrait. That is why I don't have a super televik in my arsenal. In addition to the unfortunate location, there was another drawback - we were almost not given time to shoot. Usually at such large performances they give me two or three songs to be filmed, but here they gave me one and a half, that's about eight minutes. Then they either kicked out, or "who sat down, he had time." We are all quite experienced people and after the shooting we were distributed around the hall. And here I sit and think that from such a distance and in such a short time, you can get not so many photos that are ideal in quality and sharpness. Let, I think, take a chance and click again. It was a big mistake. After all, I knew perfectly well what would follow. The guards are constantly monitoring what is happening in the hall. They saw the glare on my lens, and literally in a few seconds they took me by the scruff of the neck, took me out of the hall and banged the camera against the wall. After that, I firmly decided not to buy any more lenses for two thousand dollars.
The professionalism of the photographer is to find a common language with any model and take a good picture. However, like any artist, you probably have your favorite characters, artists, from the work with whom you really enjoy?
I really love Serega Lazarev, he is a versatile and professional actor, he can always convey the desired emotion. But there are models that need to be kneaded for a long time, like plasticine, and until you "mold", nothing happens. Seryoga understands me almost without words. You look to the right, and his hand is already there, you mentally "twist" him into a pose, and he has already rebuilt into it. Absolute harmony. I also really enjoy working with Linda. I shot her many times and admired how she entered the image and herself, without unnecessary prompts, begins to live in it, while not losing contact with me for a minute. Some people say that a photographer is like an artist: how he painted, it happened. This is not true, because a good photo session is always the result of a joint work of a model and a photographer.
Interviewed by Yulia Chernova
April 22, 1917
an outstanding master of Russian photography was born
Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter
Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter is an outstanding photo artist and tireless traveler. Perhaps, it is difficult to find a place on the map of our country, wherever he visited. And often these are hard-to-reach areas where a person's foot rarely steps. He filmed in the mountains of the Caucasus and the deserts of Central Asia, paddled along the rapids of the Sayan rivers and climbed the Kamchatka volcanoes. Vadim Evgenievich is a climber, three times was the champion of the country in alpine skiing. In 1939, he was the first to ski down from the summit of Elbrus. Even now, when he is almost 90 years old, he continues to do what he loves: traveling, skiing and photographing.
Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter about photography:
Everyone in our family knew how to use a camera. When I was 8-10 years old, the family did not consider it difficult to insert a record and a cassette and 
with an old wooden camera to take pictures of your guests or relatives on a holiday. We loaded a couple of cassettes with glass plates in red light, put the device on a tripod, covered ourselves with a rag, built a “frame” on frosted glass and immediately went into the room to develop it also in red light. We dried the negative on the street, then printed it on daytime aristotype paper, then dipped it in fixer - and that's it. After the war, I started shooting with a Leica - a narrow-format camera.
Painting and photography are completely different things, although there are points of contact. A book made up of photographs is a large mosaic, resulting in a picture that creates a certain state. Taking pictures of views couldn't be easier. And more difficult at the same time. I don’t take pictures of Moscow, because I “don’t see” it, I have no personal attitude to it. And I don't want to take it off. But I can go to Pskov a hundred times until I take it off the way I think - the way I like it. Or to Novgorod, or to Kizhi. Solving such problems, you bring photography closer to ART. Then, as a result, although the picture remains flat, a certain volume is created, an image of this or that city. The frames of the plane move apart, and a state is born - that is, what makes landscape photography an art.
The movement should still be filmed with a more efficient camera. But I don't shoot narrow 
cameras, and wide, 6x7 - "Asahi-Pentax" and "Mamiya RB-67". And everything that can be done slowly, I do with an old big camera: I set up a tripod, cover myself with a rag, and until I shake the shot, I will not leave this place. I show myself in the bathroom. Why go to exercise somewhere across all Moscow, if you can do the same at home at any time of the day? I must always know where I was wrong if there is something wrong with the shooting. The experience of working with Pravda taught me this. Once I was filming the Tallinn Regatta. My friend Timir Pinegin, a legendary personality, champion of the Olympic Games and the world, gave me a boat so that I could work in any conditions - both in a storm and in a wave. The yachts capsized, the weather was terrible. I shot something that very few people succeeded in. Filming was ruined in Pravda. Since then I have been doing everything myself.
I still take pictures of these animals if given the opportunity. Album "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" is printed from color photographs. I put the pictures by numbers and sent them along with the text to the Stalin printing house in Minsk. The text was published in Belarusian and under a different surname (someone needed a publication), but the money was paid to me right away. I still have excellent relations with the employees of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
Never worked anywhere, never served. It sounds blasphemous, although this does not mean that he did nothing - on the contrary. He was simply not listed in any edition and did not sit in one place.
Normal and not a single shot during the day to take. Perfectly normal. I have been to Baikal twice. Didn't take anything off. A dull empty sky, reflected in the lake, burnt out in summer, no slopes - what is there to shoot, and who needs it? Baikal is a very interesting and complex object. To remove it properly, you have to live there - look for interesting temporary states in early spring or late autumn. When the ice starts to crumble and the storms are driving the ice floes. To feel well any landscape, you have to live in it for a while.
This interview was not easy. No, the fact that Andrei Kamenev was an interesting interlocutor was known in advance, but my colleagues complicated the matter. The Internet is replete with various interviews with the photographer, and it seems that he answered all the questions "before us" long ago. After complaining about the complexity of the work of her creative editor, I received a quite natural answer: "Well then, ask what women he likes." Humor in such situations does not always work ...
It turned out to be not so easy to prepare for a meeting with you: you are a rather famous person, you have given interviews more than once and it seems that you have already answered all interesting questions to others ...
I just want to say that you do not build a romantic halo around me. Each age has its own goals. When I was 10 years old, I wanted communism to win all over the world; at 17 I dreamed of great and pure love, now I'm 51 and stupidly want money. Name, fame, are needed where you really achieved something.
He told me about you that you are a very good storyteller and are not afraid to share your experience ...
I can tell you anything, especially in terms of photos. In a master class, I will teach anyone the basics of photography in 20 minutes, if, of course, he really wants it. Every creative story is internal; it cannot be brought from outside.
Straight anyone?
There are millions of photos, devices are available, today almost everyone can (conditionally) make a photographic masterpiece. The places where you can take beautiful pictures are famous. Some of them are expensive, others are more accessible, but, for example, to shoot a story about spiders in the forest - hunters, hardly anyone can do it. Not because they cannot technically. It's just that no one knows anything about it. And if you don't know, then you won't be able to make a theme. To become a truly professional photographer, you need to acquire knowledge in various fields. Let me give you a simple example. Last year I was invited to the exhibition by my peers - 50-year-old photographers. One is now the director of a photo bank, the other is a photo agency, the third is publishing books…. For the first two hours, everyone told me how good they were, I also seemed to be good, but I would like it better. Toward the end of the day, the truth did come out: it turns out that the photo bank does not bring money, if it had not rented an apartment, I don’t know what I would live on. The second has a similar story: the agency merges, no one needs anything if they didn’t rent out an apartment…. All clear. You say the word to them: "Internet", and they don't even know it, let alone use it. Nobody makes a video. There is a great saying on facebook: "I am a photographer. I don't want to process anything. I want click-click. But click-click doesn't work anymore, maybe you could have lived like that fifteen years ago, but now, if you want to be on the crest, must shoot a video (and this is a whole science: editing, voice acting, script, I'm not talking about the features.) Second, I must understand the Internet: how it is all done, promoted. Young people are still doing something, fussing.
The second important point is that very few photographers know how to communicate. They believe that since they have achieved something, then they are a priori great and have the right to demand special treatment for themselves. Goodbye, guys! First, learn to communicate with people: with editors, designers, with those who are filming, and so on. Recently there was a terrible incident: Canon was preparing a trip to Socotra Island. Last year Canon and National Geographic already collaborated, and then the magazine gave away some of the received photos, most of the images were mine, and two were not mine. Canon released a calendar based on them, and one of the two photographers - Vershinin - saw it and it turned out that all the photos were signed with my name. He did not call anyone, did not find out how it happened, but stupidly wrote a cart to the court and rolled out such a bill that Canon closed all projects for this year! National Geographic indicated in the contract whose photographs it is transferring, but Canon missed this moment. This is normal? Now, neither National Geographic nor GEO will work with this photographer anymore. You need to learn and communicate, take pictures and press the buttons - it's easy.
Well, after all, don't you think that, purely objectively, a person is right, because his copyrights were violated?
Here is a slightly different story. We are not in America, where everything is signed everywhere, ours is different. You need to be able to talk, first of all, it was necessary to find out why this happened. "Yes, I'm sorry, old man, it happened, let's release a separate calendar with your photos" - that's all. Sometimes they screw up. I understand when your photo was placed in an advertisement without consent. But the corporate calendar, who reads it?
Is it not important for you that all your works are signed?
Now I work for National Geographic magazine. When some photographs come out in different editions, I don't care whether the authorship will be indicated or not. If I made some topic, interesting, thought out by me, which no one else has done, then it is important for me that they put my name.
In one interview, you told how your travels began. You sold the car, went on a trip with this money, returned from there with photographs that were successfully sold. With the proceeds, we went on the next trip and so on ...
Yes, it did. Now there is no longer such a need to sell a car, as I am mainly engaged in special projects. Money itself is not that important, but it gives freedom of movement.
Are photographs and travel still important to you today?
I already need some special places, I have been to many places, and where I have not been, I roughly know what I will see. If the topic is interesting to me, I can undermine and money will not matter. With a large number of perfect travels, one problem arises - emotions disappear, because you know in advance what will happen. Just pressing the buttons is not at all interesting. I don't know ... If you remember, when the first McDonald's was opened on Tverskaya, crowds of people stood near it: everyone heard what a Big Mac was, but no one tried it. Then, when I tried it for the second, third time, the emotions were not the same. It's the same with travel. There are places I haven’t been to yet, but they are logistically difficult. For example, the island of Zanzibar. I know how everything looks there, it is a rather poor country. My wife really wants to go there, I explain to her that there are no white beaches, there is nowhere to live there. Not your format, the word just like Zanzibar. Or take Socotra Island, at one time I really wanted to get there. 300,000 km, one hotel, however, there is a car rental. The island is not recommended for tourism, but, nevertheless, now organized tours are conducted there, there is a site socotra.ru, where, in principle, all information on the route is indicated. I myself am no longer going there. Only if you do some kind of topic. Everything was filmed for a long time and more than once, so just taking photos is not interesting ...
I listen to you and understand how suddenly everything became boring ...
Yes, boring, hard to find a new subject for photography. At this time of the year, for example, silvery clouds are clearly visible in the sky. They appear at about one in the morning and disappear at three in the morning. This year I have already shot eight videos, I'm still interested in it, I want to make a film later. For the fourth year I have been filming them, by the way, from my balcony. Such things still touch, but next year I will have something new.
Many famous photographers, with whom I have already talked, do not consider themselves professionals, and vice versa. How about self-determination?
I am a professional photographer. In our field there is such a definition: a professional photographer is one who makes money from it. I travel because I am interested in working on some topics, for me this is a necessary measure. Basically, I spent one year at the dacha, filming the life of the meadow, then I published a special book. Now I photograph the underwater life of a swamp, partly at home, in an aquarium: newts live in my house, yesterday I just remarkably filmed hunting newts for flies.
So you just sit at home and wait for the newt to catch a fly?
Special technologies have been developed, I have the necessary equipment, so this is not a problem. By the way, now I shoot more on video, I'm not interested in photos. I have a task for the coming years and it is not so important for me whether the video will be sold or not - it is interesting to me myself. And if interest disappears, then this is a craft and just making money. Then you don't need to be a travel photographer, you can switch weddings - they pay more money there, and there is no danger.
The first photos of you that I saw were from the "Expedition - Trophy" race.
By the way, this is the most convenient job for a photographer. I took it off - gave the photos on a disk - got money, and there the organizers themselves place these photos somewhere. After all, one of the problems of a photographer is where to put the pictures.
Well, you can put it on facebook for everyone to "like" ...
And then what? Where is the money? If I am going somewhere to shoot, it means that there will be some expenses. All the time to work in the negative, then, in the end, I will die of exhaustion.
For a long time I was afraid of editing, did not understand how and what they were doing there. Priperlo, mastered. Another problem is with the copyright for music (I almost started writing music myself, but nothing has worked out yet). There was a problem: dirt on the matrix, how to remove it from the video? In the photo, I just erased everything, so I had to master other programs. None of the professional photographers do this. There are professional videographers (like Serega), and there are photographers. Nobody deals with these two parallel things. I am not a professional videographer, but I think that my shooting is not bad.
What other modern technologies are you interested in?
Now I shoot a lot of time laps, I have all the equipment I need for this. Time laps are videos made from photographs. For example, how a cloud moves, stars. Time laps are often done with flowers when they want to show how they bloom.
For two years it was interesting for me to shoot macro, I know all about it. At one time he was fond of underwater photography; he also has his own necessary equipment. For three years I shot panoramas, for another three years I worked in advertising production, I know all graphic and advertising technologies. Now the video is interesting, there are a lot of new things. I look at how I work for Discovery, the BBC, I do my own work on the Internet, I try to understand how what is filmed, I don’t understand many things yet, and I want to try a lot myself. Now it is important for me to understand the main principles of how it all works, to gain experience.
And in the swamp, I filmed local animals. Now I am preparing the film "Track". 20 years ago, when our summer cottage settlement was being built, trucks with construction materials were going through the forest, and in some places a track was formed. It flooded it with water in one place, it sprawled and an ecosystem arose. There are frogs, newts, dragonflies ... I filmed last year, in parallel I filmed everything around: what birds fly in, flowers grow. This year I started filming, but I was late with the frogs (there was a business trip), I haven't finished yet. I came up with clever graphics there, made about 10 points in the forest and in the swamp with all the parameters. The tripod stands on one point and from it I make shots after a certain time. Winter, spring, summer, autumn - everything is transmitted through one plan. It works out perfectly, I removed two phases, there are still two, I will reshoot next year. I shoot macro fragments in the aquarium.
I shot before I got into the newspaper "Soviet Sport". And when you become a professional, you need to give a photograph: you can - you can not, you want - you do not want, but there must be a photograph in the newspaper. All. And a good one, too. This is a daily responsibility. Actually, the turning point was the beginning of professional work. After some time, you become a professional for whom there are no unsolvable tasks. The people who stayed to shoot the sport are still filming it. I got a little bored of filming the same footballs. For example, if you are taught ballroom dancing since childhood, then 100% that you will be engaged in them in the future. For you, this is a familiar environment and very few people are able to change it dramatically. It is also difficult to quit sports when you have everything set up: what will I live on, what will I shoot now, and so on. I managed to give up all this. The second turning point, when I went to New Guinea, it became clear to me that the world is open. It is possible to make an expedition to the other end of the world. This expedition taught me that nothing is impossible in this world. If there is a desire, a goal, then the matter is only for motivation.
What came first in your life: trophy or rally? Or was Ovchinnikov the first with "Ladoga"? :)
There used to be a correspondent from Autopilot who, in 1996, spoke about the Arctic Trophy. Then everyone knew only "Paris - Dakar", and it was like ours, Russian, marathon. My colleague went for three days, and I went for the whole race. Everyone liked what was later published so much that they started calling and asking for photos. No question, as a result, the material about the competition was published in five editions. As a sports photographer, it's easy for me to shoot cars, it's not a goal in football.
Two years later, when Yura Ovchinnikov launched "Ladoga", they started filming everything themselves, but realized that it was not going. They called me and the "trick" went. I've been to Ladoga five times. I like such competitions: I shoot not only equipment, but also nature, again you can talk to people, in the process of work and communication, all Moscow problems fade into the background. On "Ladoga" I again met with Kravtsov and I was invited to the "Expedition - Trophy", drove it three times.
Are you not interested in competitions like "Dakar"? Do you dream of getting to this famous rally marathon?
No, I try not to go to such competitions. I'll tell you a story. When I was working in sports and Maradonna came, 350 photographers came to the football field. Usually 10-12 were filming matches, everyone knows each other, but where so many people came from is not clear. The moment when the Argentinean footballer had to enter the field, the other photographers stood in a tight ring, and with my height, even if you jump, you will not see anything. Without a photo in the editorial office, they will kill me. I ran across the stands to the top of the porch, from where he was supposed to leave. He came out, you can see his back, curly head and crowds of photographers. Only I have such a frame. The rest have the same footage with some variations. I realized that you always have to run in the other direction. If everyone is running to the right, then we must take to the left. It's the same at the Dakar. There are a million photographs, everything has been shot - re-shot.
I took part in the Camel Trophy in 2000, went as a journalist for a week, they left me for a month, helped. I saw how "posters" work on Camel, they have everything: helicopters, boats, equipment, boxes, assistants. It is useless to compete with them, no matter how you take pictures that you do not know how. Therefore, I am ready to go to various official events only as a "poster" when there are some special opportunities. "Here, I filmed on" Dakar! "- so what? Likes on facebook, no more.
I read in one interview that, in your opinion, there are no boundaries and prohibitions for photographers. None at all? Even moral and ethical?
It depends on what you mean by "moral and ethical". Filming murder or pornography? Everyone decides for himself, a normal person simply will not do this. In 1992, I happened to be in Tajikistan during the hostilities, I was the only professional photographer there. As a reporter (originally I am a sports reporter) I started working. During a war, any cataclysms, it is easy to shoot simply because there is something to shoot. Photographers shoot first, then help. And then I thought: they will raise the green banner of the prophet, now they will open their throats and they will not figure out who you are and why. Since it cut off. I try to distract myself from news, politics, sports, and all operational information. Noctilucent clouds have been going for a million years and will continue to go, but no one sees this beauty, since they are sleeping at this time. And if they see it, then in real time, and I speed up this process several times.
In your other interview, I came across an interesting moment about goal-setting. Like, climbers, when they reach Everest, they feel devastated. Therefore, in life you need to have several goals in order not to get severely depressed.
Since 1996, I have been collecting National Geographic magazine, and I was brought up on it. It has been a goal for me to publish my pictures in this magazine for several years. The magazine was published in Russia, and three years later my first publication appeared in it. Another 3-4 years have passed and Geographic invited me to become their chief photographer, now I am a chief photographer and shoot all special projects. I reached the top, now I also know how American Geographic works, how everything works there, and to be honest, I don't really want to work here.
I noticed that in your interview you said: people who take you on an expedition should be confident in you. You, too, probably will not hit the road with everyone? What is the "yardstick" of people for you?
I need to look at the people, what kind of team is going. I don't go anywhere with strangers, on extreme expeditions the number of people is limited and, as a rule, I already know everyone.
Of human qualities, what exactly repels you? Maybe you can't stand the mat?
I have communicated with a large number of people in my life, I believe that I am a physiognomist and partly a psychologist, from a person's appearance I can say a lot of things. Maybe they will be wrong, but I think I'll guess 90%. I often see in the eyes what a person is capable of. And the qualities ... You must first get to know a person, go somewhere with him, and then you will already know whether you will go somewhere with him or not. In the mountains, on expeditions, everything becomes clear at once on the third day.
By the way, yesterday we discussed with a good friend, and in the course of the conversation he dropped the phrase that women on an expedition are evil.
Evil, but not always. Rather, in his youth. Because, conventionally, "male territorial claims" begin, everyone begins to pay attention. The girl may have nothing to do with it, but the men already have time to quarrel. When people are wiser, they don't do that. The girl is usually weaker physically. There is a wonderful girl Tanya Parfishina, she is great! Tanya is very positive, she never asks for help, she does everything herself. And just such women always want to help. There are two types of women: one walks around and whines: "Buy me a fur coat", and the other makes you want to buy her a fur coat yourself. Tanya is exactly the kind of woman who wants to buy a fur coat. She does not demand anything from you, does not ask.
Still, how do you choose for yourself which expedition to go on and which one - not?
I am regularly invited to various projects, but I don't often agree. Now I am preparing with the American National Geographic for a trip to Franz Josef Land. We will work on a research vessel, this project will bring together many of my most diverse dreams related to both deep-sea and underwater filming. Also, scientists are traveling with us who will get deep-sea animals. I'll take with me an aquarium, box, suits, rails, tripods - a lot of tasks! Plus, I want to see how the International Team works, the team that will make the film. After all, it's one thing to guess how everything was filmed, and quite another to become a direct witness of the process. At one time, a video was popular on youtube where a cheetah was running. Nice, 4-5 seconds, different plans, the total timing is half a minute, and then I looked at how it was filmed: a rail of 150-200 meters, there is a platform on it, a high-speed camera is located in the center, four more cameras with different lenses. Several beta-kamm, several photographers, this thing goes at a speed of 100 km / h, like a cheetah runs. They brought a specially trained cheetah to a specially chosen place, extended an electronic hare ... .. During the production of this video, about 100 people were involved. Yes, it is beautiful, but you will never do it alone. Now I want to see how they work. I am responsible for all National Geographic internet projects in this project. They sent me a list of people who will go with us on the expedition, opposite each is Dive or Land. Opposite me is Any. This made me happy.
In your opinion, what is the most beautiful place on earth?
I used to say that New Zealand, now I think that, probably, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. There are beautiful forests and glaciers, wildlife and many animals. There are few people there.
What gives you pleasure?
Pleasure? Cognac and whiskey (laughs)... By the way, if a person does not drink or smoke (okay, does not smoke - this is a personal matter), but if a glass cannot be drunk, then, for sure, something is wrong with him, I try to beware of such people, because where- then there will be some kind of setup. If one comes across one on an expedition, it's kind of a mess. This is communication, liberation, plus there are delicious drinks. You have to try many things to have a judgment about it.
When the interview had already been submitted long ago and even agreed upon, I went to Andrey's Facebook page and there I saw the videos he was telling me about. As it turned out, I had already seen him more than once (all kinds of re-posts and "likes" on friends' pages on social networks). Until that time, I had never paid attention to the author ... That's how cool it can be!
Text: Galina Kosheleva
Photo: Andrey Kamenev, Vyacheslav Ryabinkin, Sergey Belostotsky, Yuri Ovchinnikov, Alexander Grek, Yuri Kulagin, Alexander Palamarchuk, Planetpics.ru
Into work - headlong
He considers 1991 to be the starting point, when he became interested in underwater photography. The first themes were - "The life of the swamp" and "Inhabitants of the Black Sea". Then, in the Crimea, he met French scuba divers. Among them was the president of the International Festival of Underwater Photography in Antibes. He invited Andrey to participate in the festival. In Antibes, KAMENEV was awarded an honorary diploma for the "swamp" - this inspired him to further "deeds". In 1992, he "changed" the Black Sea to the White Sea, where he took a series of photographs of marine invertebrates. Then - the Barents Sea, Franz Josef Land. The masters who shoot underwater in these latitudes can be counted on the fingers of one hand, diving here is difficult and dangerous (solo dives are generally prohibited). Perhaps that is why the underwater world of the Arctic is not as widely covered in print as the world of the tropical seas. In addition, it is believed that, in comparison with the tropics, the flora and fauna of the Circumpolar is not so rich in bright colors ...
Kamenev's survey showed the opposite: the world of the Arctic depths is harsh, but rich and diverse. The material he brought to Antibes was received with a bang. The author was awarded a special prize, and his photographs of echinoderms, arthropods and other invertebrates were published in one of the most prestigious magazines "Mond de la Mer".
Until 1994, Andrei was not published in Russian publications at all - he worked for the Antibes Festival, annually bringing several exclusive themes to France. He was carried away by the water element - not only with light, colors, a feeling of weightlessness, but, probably, also with the atmosphere of "extreme". After all, the underwater world - the world of peace and silence, streamlined shapes and the play of chiaroscuro - really does not know peace: there is a continuous struggle for life, much, perhaps, cruel than on land. The larva of the swimming beetle plunges tentacles into the tadpole ... Medusa shoots stinging cells at the victim ... The "Angelfish" devours the "monkfish" ... Water is life "on the border of two environments", be it a swamp, a lake, or World Ocean. And the photographer's task is to show it to thousands of people who are deprived of the opportunity to see it with their own eyes.
Interrupted flight
The appetite for risk, however, was not limited to the water element. Along with diving, Andrey mastered alpine skiing and surfing, ice climbing and mountain bike, rafting and snowboarding. To shoot all these "extremes", it is not enough to be a photographer, you need to master it professionally.
In general, KAMENEV was engaged in alpine skiing and surfing at the institute - with friends. And once I decided to try a paraglider. The experiment ended unsuccessfully: there was a strong cold wind (as they say, "speaker"), and the dome was formed. Andrey collapsed from the height of a six-story building onto the cemented slope of a sand pit. The result was sixteen shrapnel fractures of the feet and three compression fractures of the spine. The situation was critical: the doctors warned that gangrene could not be ruled out - and then amputation would be indispensable ... But the body and fortitude won: the feet remained intact and KAMENEV got to his feet six months later, first, of course, on crutches. I learned to walk again. At first I was limping. but eventually stopped limping.
Time spent in the hospital and on crutches, earnings. of course, it didn't. As soon as Andrei started to "run", he "loaded" Russian publications in full - the archive was rich. It was 1995 - young glossy magazines vied with each other to print "big travels". One after another, "Observer", "Voyage", "Domovoy" published Kamenev's reports: about snake-catchers in Turkmenistan (where Andrey tried himself as a catcher), expeditions to Armenia and the Pamirs, to the same Franz Josef Land and dozens of others ...
Since then, he has been published regularly and a lot. By the most conservative estimates, he works with 50-60 magazines a year (at the same time he uses his own equipment, buys film with his own money and often travels at his own expense). It is impossible to find him at home, and his cell phone is either busy or "out of reach". Life, started during student practice and internships, in essence, continues at the same pace - on the fly. Apart from small "sorties", KAMENEV undertakes at least one large expedition a year - to make a major topic and publish it.
Pure exclusive
It is difficult to name the most interesting topic. In 1995, he traveled to Irian Jaya - in the Indonesian territory of the island of New Guinea, famous for its wild cannibal tribes. I went there as part of the Seven Summits expedition, but soon separated from it and traveled alone. He lived in a tribe of the Papuans, photographed their life and customs.
The trip to the Andaman Islands, east of India, was also very interesting. This area is closed to foreigners. So, Jacques Yves KUSTO received permission to visit Andaman for 3 years. But KAMENEV and "with his comrades" managed to do the impossible in one day. For six weeks they dived into the Bay of Bengal with scuba diving and paragliding. As for India, Andrei crossed it by bus. On the way, I looked into the state of Goa, known for the fact that hippies from all over the world come there, including lovers of "an altered state of consciousness". A reportage about immersion in nirvana then went around many domestic magazines.
In the Philippines, he photographed pearl divers. Off the coast of Australia - barrier reef sharks. Australia itself crossed twice - from north to south and from south to north. He drove 10 thousand km by car across New Zealand as part of the "Verikalny Mir" expedition, where he filmed not only nature, but also extreme sports, including underwater.
As for diving surveys, here the geography of KAMENEV, in principle, has no analogues: the Seychelles and Maldives, Malta, the Red Sea, the White Sea, the Barents Sea and dozens of other seas of various latitudes. The most difficult and dangerous dive was at the North Pole: minus thirty-five degrees in air and minus two - under water.
In Hawaii, he photographed surfing, in Alaska - extreme kayak, skiing and ice climbing. I visited the USA twice, on one of my trips I rode 12 canyons in Utah with a team of mountain bikers, among whom were three world mountain bike champions. I visited Las Vegas - I did not play, but I recorded a lot on tape, although this is strictly prohibited. Saw the sands of Arizona and the sands of Tunisia. In the vicinity of Dusa ("Desert Gate") he captured the sunrise and sunset in the Sahara, for which he had to walk for five hours on the dunes ...
He also did not pass by his homeland. Having crossed the Baikal ridge, he rafted down the Lena River. In Buryatia, he visited the Ivolginsky Datsan, where he filmed the life of monks and the national holiday Surkharban. I drove 16 thousand km in a car across Central Asia - I was in all the former republics, from where I brought "three bags of slides." In the Far East, in the Sikhote-Alin taiga, he photographed Ussuri tigers face to face. I crossed a huge stretch of Siberia by truck - more than 3,000 km from Yakutsk to Zyryanka. On the Kola Peninsula, he took part in the Arctic Trophy rally-raid as part of the Moscow crew.
By the way, about the "trophy". Andrey KAMENEV as a journalist participated in the last Camel Trophy, which was held in Oceania. During the race, he covered over 2,000 km with a Russian women's team on an inflatable motor boat - from the Kingdom of Tonga to Western Samoa. Largely thanks to him, our girls became prize-winners in this "race of the century". KAMENEV doesn't talk about this too much, but we know. that if he had not taken out the bike, ripped off the riptek and "drowned" at a 15-meter depth, our team would never have taken the honorable third place.
Final frame
Today Andrey KAMENEV is 38 years old. His archive contains hundreds of thousands of slides and negatives brought by him from more than 60 countries of the world. Only Antarctica, Latin America and "black" Africa remained uncovered. In Europe - Italy, Greece and Portugal.
Perhaps, in ten years, these areas will still be included in Kamenev's track record. Thus, there will not be a single state, not a single protected area on Earth, where his foot has not set foot. Wherever the shutter of his camera works.
However, this does not mean that KAMENEV will calm down and read on his laurels. A very restless person.
He has no competitors among Russian photographers. The reason is simple: Andrei Kamenev is ready to work where others cannot be dragged for any money. He dived with a camera under the ice at the North Pole, descended into karst caves in Mexico, climbed a mountain wall in Switzerland - in general, he seriously risked for the sake of spectacular pictures. It is not surprising that extreme enthusiasts of all stripes consider him their own and, getting ready for the next expedition, always call him with them. Two months on a business trip, a week at home - Andrei has been living according to this schedule for the last 15 years. Over the years, he has traveled seven dozen countries, covering more than four million kilometers on various types of transport. That is, it circled the globe about 100 times ...
Andrey does not receive editorial assignments. He is a freelancer, that is, a "free artist". He independently chooses the topic and place of the next business trip, he decides himself to whom to give the footage.
There are quite a few freelance photojournalists in the West, but in Russia this style of work has not become popular. It's not just about different pay levels. Our professionals prefer to have a stable "roof". In addition, a freelance artist must always do his job better than others, otherwise he will die of hunger. But I simply cannot imagine myself in the rigid framework of some edition. I like the feeling of freedom and the ability to decide for myself what is interesting and what is not.
Have you ever had a desire to move abroad and become a Western-style freelancer?
There they have a narrow specialization: one takes pictures of animals, the other - cacti, the third - extreme sports. And I like to photograph both, and another, and the third. This is possible only in Russia.
Traveling around the world at your own expense?
In most cases. Now it is easier, and when I started working, it was not easy to pay for trips on my own. For example, in the early 90s, I learned about the preparation of a climbing expedition to New Guinea. I ask the organizers: "Can I go with you?" The answer is yes. With only one caveat - I will cover the costs. To buy tickets to the other side of the world - at that time they cost crazy money - I had to sell the car.
Was this sacrifice justified?
Sure! I made a lot of unique shots on that business trip. Quite quickly I broke away from the climbers and went into the jungle. Just two or three hours walk from a small town on the coast - and you find yourself in places where the natives practically did not see white people. It is dangerous to climb further - the Papuans can shoot an uninvited guest. He established contact with local residents using cigarettes. Literally everyone smokes there: small children, women, old people ... I gave them all my tobacco supplies and as a result became a friend of the tribe. Most importantly, I was allowed to film whatever I wanted. I lived among the savages for several weeks. He ate, smoked, slept with them in the hut. Of course, I felt some discomfort.
On the very first night in the Papuan dwelling I was bitten by some midges, all red became. I go to the leader, I ask with the help of gestures: what to do? He, also with gestures, replies - they say, do not pay attention, they also bite us, and nothing. Why are there insect bites! In that tribe, when someone dies in the family, men cut off their ears as a sign of sorrow, women cut off their fingers. Therefore, in the village there are continuous invalids.
Now you continue to travel to places where the photographer has never gone before?
15 years ago there were enough such places in the world. Today there are very few of them. These are mainly areas that are closed to the public for military or environmental reasons. For example, the Andaman Islands, which belong to India, are declared a nature reserve and no one is allowed there. Only one exception was made for Cousteau, and even he waited several years for permission. I had no chance of officially getting a pass at all. But I really wanted to visit a tribe living on one of these islands. The natives are so wild that they shoot arrows even at the fishermen if they swim too close to the shore. In short, my friends and I decided to go. At one's own risk. Foreigners are still allowed into the capital of the islands, no further. They found a local German who still had a very old entry permit. We did a good job with this paper - we entered our names, then faxed it several times, then laminated it. It turned out to be a pretty decent-looking document.
What if the forgery was exposed?
Then they would have gotten ten years in an Indian prison. But nothing happened. We spent several weeks on the islands. The nature there is amazing - I first photographed the landscapes, and at the end of the expedition I found a guide ready to take you to the warlike natives. I found out that the tribe hates whites, but they love dancing. Therefore, just in case, I learned to dance, rehearsed every day ... And the guide at the very last moment, the day before going to the savages, died of malaria. So I didn't get to them. Maybe it's for the best, otherwise I would have gotten an arrow in one place ...
By the way, do you often encounter an aggressive attitude from the local population?
In most countries, the locals react calmly to the camera. In Jamaica, I was even allowed to film the drug trade. The only time he was taken to the police in Bombay was for filming in a local market. It was so dirty that the administration forbade photography. But there are no prohibitions for a photographer! However, for a bribe in India, you can solve all the problems with the police ... The Old Believers, which I reported on the Yenisei, reacted quite aggressively - they even threatened. But in the end they resigned themselves to my presence.
Have you ever met dangerous animals?
Insects bite constantly. On the same Andaman Islands, some flies bit one of my friends so that he had to be treated in a hospital: his legs were swollen. And I treat snakes calmly. I caught them in the early 90s. Then I had no money, so I went to work in Turkmenistan. The famous snake catcher Vladimir Babash was my teacher. A short briefing - and I was thrown into some hole to collect reptiles ... For several months I caught dozens of snakes: there were cobras, gyurzas ... The lesson is not the safest. The bite of these snakes is fatal and serum does not always help. If the reptile snatched, it is necessary to chop the bite site with a knife "into cabbage", to drain more blood. But I was not bitten. All right.
You are constantly invited to their expeditions by extreme sportsmen. Are you completely devoid of fear?
I'm scared too, but someone has to shoot things like that. Colleagues often refuse. Here's a recent example. The skiers were called to Alaska - to descend from very steep wild slopes. In addition to me, there were two more cameramen of one of the central TV channels in the team, both of whom have been skiing for a long time. We were dropped on the ridge from a helicopter. It's scary to look down: the slope is 55 degrees, but to the eye it generally seems vertical. To remove the athletes from the lowest point, you need to go down yourself, go through the entire route. The operators immediately refused and jumped back into the helicopter. Well, I stood there, thought, and went downstairs. It was very scary, and even a heavy backpack with equipment behind it interfered. But I didn’t want to let the guys who invited me on the trip.
You are one of the few who filmed base jumpers ...
Although I myself did not jump "base", but when I was shooting, my soul went into my heels. I got a lot of adrenaline during my first expedition to the Swiss Alps. When people standing next to you jump from a cliff into an abyss, you want to close your eyes with fear. But you have to shoot ...
Basers jumped with parachutes, and how did you go down the mountain?
It was not just a mountain, but the Eiger Wall, one of the most difficult sections in the Alps. For the first time this height was taken by German climbers in 1938. For that ascent they were honored as national heroes ... And we climbed the Eiger wall every day for a whole week. The guys jumped and in a few seconds were already on the ground, and after filming I went down for hours. And no one considered us heroes ... In Mexico, when the basers jumped into a karst well, I also suffered through fear. It was necessary to shoot jumps not only from above, but also from below, as well as from an intermediate point, hanging on a rope. The hardest part was forcing myself to go down it into an underground cave almost 400 meters deep. I'm not an extreme athlete, but a photographer. Imagine, you are offered to descend by rope from the Ostankino tower, and in almost complete darkness ... And then climb up again!
How many sports did you have to master for spectacular shots?
Mountaineering; I learned to ski tolerably well; I mastered snowboarding, surfing .. And in order to shoot from high points, I began to learn to fly on a paraglider. During a flight in the winter in a quarry near Lyubertsy, my apparatus "collapsed" due to strong winds. Crashed into an icy slope. The result is 16 foot fractures and spinal injury. But I was still lucky, because I fell from the height of a six-story building. After that he spent several months in the hospital, then "mastered" the Ilizarov apparatus, learned to walk. Now I am more careful about the top points of the survey.
Andrey Kamenev loves to shoot underwater. On his account - 500 dives, from the Crimea and Egypt to the North Pole. In the near future he plans to go on another sea expedition to photograph white sharks.
The most difficult underwater survey was at the North Pole. Not only physically, but also mentally: during one of the expeditions a very experienced photographer Andrei Rozhkov died there. And I was the only person to dive under the ice in a very light "wet" suit, designed for warm seas. The fact is that "dry" - for diving in the North - does not provide freedom of movement, and I decided: I'd better freeze, but I would feel free. We dived into the so-called "rivers" - cracks between ice floes several meters thick. In pairs. All members of the expedition worried that I would freeze, but I survived. The partner, who was immersed in a dry suit, froze faster: his water penetrated into the suit. And I stayed under the ice alone for another 20 minutes. Then they almost forcibly pulled me out. Enough, they said. I still held on, but the batteries for the flash sat down due to frost.
Always diving with your camera?
Without it - only in exceptional cases. There have been three of them lately. The first time was during the Ladoga trophy. On one of the sections, the road passed next to the lake, and the Latvians in the Toyota Corolla did not fit into the turn. The car flew into the lake and immediately went under water. The racers managed to get out. They sat down by the fire, became sad: the computer and documents remained in the car. The water in the lake was very cold, but I felt sorry for the poor fellows. I undressed and dived. Found the car at a depth of six meters, tied the rope to the outer safety frame. Then the "Corolla" was pulled out by tow trucks. The Latvians came at night with a huge bottle of vodka in a large leather case. They say they saved it for the finish line, but they decided to give it to me ... There was also a story on the Yenisei - a light plane fell into the water, there were no rescuers around, so I had to dive and take out the passengers. Another incident occurred on the White Sea: the ship lost its propeller when entering the port. Sometimes it happens. There, they also somehow found out that I have been diving for a long time, they asked for help. True, I never found the screw, no matter how much I dived.
Car travel is another significant part of Andrey's biography. In his free time from extreme filming, he chooses a country and goes to travel around it for a couple of months.
The most beautiful roads, in my opinion, are in New Zealand. A completely new landscape awaits at every turn. The landscapes are fantastic and change very often - just have time to photograph.
One of the most memorable car trips is Australia. My wife and I went to the central part of the country, that is, to completely deserted places. The wheels in our jeep burst one after the other, and at first we could not understand the reason. Later they explained to us that in the desert the tires should be slightly deflated. After all, the dirt road gets so hot in 50-degree heat that rubber with normal pressure does not withstand and explodes.
And tire fitting in the desert is not provided ...
Farmers helped us to repair the wheels. True, they still had to get to: the farms take up huge spaces. Several tens of kilometers wide and several hundred long. The heat was not only poorly tolerated by the tires. The radiator was also constantly boiling - we had to wait two hours for the car to cool down. In such cases, you immediately put up the awning - and you arrange a quiet hour under it. Actually, a trip to the Australian outback is a pure adventure. If you get lost, they are unlikely to be found. In addition, in the desert, on the dirt road, you do not notice holes covered with dust. You can easily roll over. And most of all I was impressed by the local pubs: not a single visitor, but hordes of flies. On weekends, farmers come to these leisure centers and have fun together. On other days there is a low season.
For long trips abroad, I heard that sometimes you don't rent a car, but buy it?
This is sometimes more practical. In India, my friends and I bought not even a car, but a big bus. I had to get from Delhi to Goa - a favorite vacation spot for informals. People hang out there for years, content with little: they live in simple huts, eat the cheapest food, and spend all their money on drugs. We calculated that buying a car would be cheaper than air tickets and additional payments for cargo (we had a paraglider with us and a lot of things). An English acquaintance who had lived in this country for a long time, advised not to waste time on trifles and take a bus. They paid about $ 2,000 for it. We immediately hired a driver and a signalman. - Whom?
Signalman. It is simply necessary in India - many cars there do not have "turn signals" and brake lights. Therefore, a specially trained person constantly leans out the window and informs other traffic participants with gestures when and where you are turning. On our bus, the lighting equipment was normal, but the Indians strongly advised the signalman not to give up - it was still calmer with him, there was less chance of an accident. In this way, we crossed almost the entire country. In India, transport is always packed, people hang on buses with garlands. We drove like kings - five of us in a huge cabin. The locals looked at us like aliens. Arriving in Goa, they quickly sold the bus, having lost quite a bit in money. Consider seeing the whole country for almost nothing.
Did you master the northern routes too?
Once I was invited to take a ride in ZIL trucks on winter roads - roads laid along frozen rivers - across the whole of Yakutia. The expedition was organized by the Italian traveler Stefania Dzini. Overboard - minus 50 ° C and not a soul, only "lunar" landscapes. The team consisted of 13 people. Three in the cockpit, and one must sit in the box all the time. This was the fate of the sound engineer. Somehow I decided to replace him, let him into the cockpit, and settled myself in the back. The stove there is very powerful - you turn it on, it gets hot, like in Tashkent. I stripped down to my underpants. He opened the window. Then I feel that I am freezing, I want to close it - it does not work, I am frozen. He took a chopping board for groceries, leaned out into the opening and began to tear off the window. At that moment, the car shook, and I could hardly resist, almost fell out. And our ZIL was the last. Imagine, there would be a picture: a blizzard, minus 50 ° C, and I am in shorts and a T-shirt in the middle of the tundra, with a cutting board!
It’s probably not sweet there and in clothes ...
Especially when the urge to use the toilet. You stop the car, dig a hole in a snowdrift, do everything in five seconds. No longer - otherwise you will freeze. When we arrived at the village, which consisted of two barracks, we were happy: it seemed to us that we were in the palace ...
Is Andrey Kamenev a neat driver?
On the contrary, my wife and I drive fast. We light, in a word. They rented a Toyota Camry in New Zealand and got shot in it for two months. In one of the last days we were stopped by a policeman for a large speeding. The fine is $ 300. But for some reason we did not draw any conclusions. After a kilometer, they stop again - we drove at 140 km / h with a permitted 60 km / h. For this we were given another receipt - already for 500 bucks. By the way, this was the maximum fine. If we exceeded the line of 150 km / h, we would have been put in jail. Then at the hotel I looked at the calendar and couldn't believe my eyes: Friday the 13th.
Do you often dream about travel?
Almost every time I return home from a business trip, I have colored dreams. Impressions "do not let go" for five to seven days. I'm still going somewhere, rushing, taking pictures ...
Don't have time for a hobby?
My hobby is photography. I even take pictures of insects in the country. I can, for example, make a large portrait of a mosquito or a fly. Insects are my favorite models.
A person who is doing what he loves has nothing to dream of?
I dream of making photo books, biographies. For example, recently an American photographer captured the story of a family's resettlement from British Columbia to Alaska. I rode a dog sled with them for hundreds of miles and watched the construction of a house in a new location. It's great if I ever manage to do something like this.
Interviewed by Dmitry BARINOV
"Klaxon" N 009 p. 27-29 dated 03.05.2005
Everyone knows the photographer Andrey Kamenev in the extreme world. He is also known for his photographs of travel, nature, architecture and wonderful reports ... Sports are only five percent of what Kamenev shoots.
Today this man is going on an underwater survey to the North Pole. Tomorrow - to shoot the cannibal tribe in Papua New Guinea, or to Mauritius, to shoot kiters. And the day after tomorrow, with no less interest, he is lying with a macro lens in the grass at his dacha, tracking down insects. This person looks at the world broadly and displays it widely in his photographs. Perhaps that is why Andrei, with the exception of a few points, who has traveled almost the whole world, and has taken an incredible number of photographs, looks so energetic, cheerful and “unstressed”.
Some say that this is Andrei Kamenev, what is it about him? Why are his photographs in all the magazines? Well, shooting and filming, nothing unusual, simple high-quality sports shooting ...
It all depends on the action, - Andrey seriously answers. - I agree that any cool action will do well. But for serious events, serious guys take trusted people. If you are traveling far and for a long time, the person next to you should not let their legs or the camera down. Here, for example, Valery Rozov's bass - here really, sorry, young people won't be able to, you need to have shooting experience. You have to be in the right place at the right time. And no punctures, overlays with technology, because there is only one moment when a person flies past you. And if Rozov flew 20 meters from you, 20 meters from the ground, it’s not just that he flew ... Here we have to calculate everything - I must understand where he will fly, how it will look.
Base is a different story altogether. First, you must stand next to the athlete, on the edge, at the point of separation (exit), or even hang on a rope on a rock. It means, at least, you should be psychologically ready for such actions. How many people have seen who come up - and their limbs begin to tremble. And still the sharpness should be directed not by autofocus, but manually. Beisers, when they stand at the exit, they have a moment of truth ... And if suddenly at this moment the operator says that he forgot to insert the tape, or is not ready yet, the flash has not been charged, or the batteries have run out, this is not a conversation. If you are like that, you will quickly begin conflicts, you simply will not be taken next time. You need to gain your weight. People who go there to jump, they must be sure of you.
And one more factor. In the modern world, it is not enough just to take a photograph. We must also place it! One must be able to explain, prove, convince, communicate. One will come - they will not look at his photos, I will come with his photos - and they will be posted. You have to be athletic, and responsible, and possess technique, and be sociable. And those who scandal, who cannot speak, such people quickly disappear. Because the extreme world is very small ...
So, an extreme photographer must have some specific skills?
Basically, any professional reportage photographer can shoot anything. But I'm not sure that everyone will descend 400 meters on a rope into a Mexican cave or, there, dive under the ice at the North Pole. Or on Dombai, you can, in principle, go to the middle of the track without skis, but then you still have to stand there at minus 20 for five or six hours and shoot. Who wants to do this kind of shooting even for $ 1000, for example? They will think, what for I need, I'd rather go and take off football for the same money. So you still need to love it. Although my "trick" is that I am a universal photographer. I do not pretend to be an extreme photographer ... I have been traveling for three winters now: in Australia I was, here, here, generally dropped out of the alpine and snow party. Last year, I think, we need to refresh the whole thing, talk with old friends. I started in Kamchatka in April: alpine skiing and base, in May I went to the Riviera, to canyoning, then to the Maldives, there diving, then to the Ladoga Trophy, and also went to Krasnaya Polyana for multimedia races.
Do you take your wife with you, your family?
The wife drives. I don’t take her to the mountains, on an expedition, where it’s hard for her to survive, but we go to travel together. Right now we were in the Maldives, they sunbathed there, watched the fish, and I dived, filmed underwater macro photography underwater. By the way, this is my know-how - both macro photography and panoramic photography. I "glue" it on the computer from two pictures.
By the way, I wanted to ask you, you don't have the feeling that you are not creating anything new, that you stay at the same level?
Not. Even to find the right points, you constantly have to invent. You have only three shooting options in the base: bottom, top, side, and that's it. And Valera Rozov and I came up with such "fishing rods". You hang on a rope, and then you carry yourself 4 meters from the wall with such a rod, and you take pictures from a new perspective.
Then, our magazines ("Boards" and "Onboard") ask you to shoot storyboards or a general plan, and you try to shoot a big shot! In the last 10 years, there has been a tendency towards enlargement in sports photography, so that a person's emotions are visible when jumping. And it is important for magazines to see where he jumped from, so it is not interesting to work with them.
In order not to repeat yourself, you come up with something every year. Came up with a panorama. At the VERTMIR EXTREME PHOTO exhibition (an exhibition of extreme photographs by the Vertical World magazine, the first Russian magazine about extreme sports) I won with just such a photograph. And for storyboarding, you have to look for new frames, high-speed cameras have appeared.
Previously, when there was no experience of extreme shooting, everything had to be invented. With the same Artem Zubkov (editor-in-chief of the magazine "Vertical World"), when the publication was just beginning, we went to the Stubai glacier, took ice axes, found a beautiful place, Artem climbed there, I took pictures, and it turned out cool. We took a steam bath, thought, filmed, and now everyone is getting heavier, and I'm getting heavier ... Or rather, I have different goals and objectives. I am now interested in my own projects: I want to publish books about nature. And then there's the matter of budgets. The same paraglider - either take it off in the suburbs, or in Bolivia. Or a man did a trick in Krylatskoye, or in New Zealand ... A lot depends on the "backdrop". But these are completely different budgets. Christian Pondella (the most famous American extreme photographer) has why such good photos: also because he has the opportunity to shoot the best riders in the best places - separate budgets are allocated for this, incomparable with ours.
Is the attitude of foreign photographers to shooting different from what has developed in Russia?
They have a different attitude towards shooting. There the photographer will not shoot everything. He will come and see that the blizzard is sweeping, that the riders have black or gray clothes. Goodbye, he will say, guys, and if you want a good photo, then here you are, because the clothes are bright, and you, because you jump well, you have to pass there and there, and not today, but when the weather is good and the sun is bright, but for now exercise. Here was an excellent photo in one magazine, where they filmed for 3 weeks, watched the place, trained. But they have completely different money ... If they pay me, how much they pay, I am ready to walk on virgin soil for at least 10 days, but we have completely different prices ...
For example, Jean Marc (one of the famous extreme photographers, was a member of the jury for VERTMIR EXTREME PHOTO-2005). I have known him since 1996, he drove 200 km to show us with Artem in France, where we were then, his very small portfolio. Three years later, he opened his own agency - eight employees, a light table for viewing photographs - 12 meters, an office like a gym, and three magazines were created specifically for him. This is the scope! Therefore, we and them cannot be compared. They can arrange 5 flashes in the pipe, find a cool rider and shoot him when the sun goes down. I can do it too, but for what? $ 30 in Onboard and $ 20 in Boards. And I have to feed my family.
And when was it harder to become an extreme photographer, in your time, or now?
Now it is very difficult to break through, to unwind, so that they begin to recognize you. Here is Vitalik Mikhailov, Andrey Pirumov shooting a snowboard. They ride with the best riders and it's useless to compete with them. A lot more depends on the riders themselves. If he can "soak" from a 20-meter springboard - then here's a picture, and if a guy jumps from a three-meter bump, then the photo will be like that.
Or you have to drop everything and go completely into the snowboard to crush everyone, but I don't need that. In skateboarding, in mountain biking, in kite - there are already guys everywhere. Now everything is going as in the West - along the path of specialization.
Which of the “young” ones would you note as modern professional photographers?
Well, they are no longer young. Slyuntay (Andrey Artyukhov) is probably the most professional photographer now. By the way, I also had my hand in this. At one time he pushed him into the "Sport Express" to shoot football (and to shoot football is not an easy thing), and he began to shoot professionally. Andrey Pirumov became like this - by inspiration and the number of photographs taken in the West. Pirumov can be recognized by some Western style, he spied in Western magazines, this is his find. He shoots from behind obstacles, from a car window, from behind a tree, but recently the style has begun to dominate him. Uses too often. And before it was good when it was fresh. Then, Zhenya Efimova shoots kitesurfing. At least she does not stupidly click, she begins to think - then she will introduce the birds into the frame, then the sail.
But I just haven’t seen such photos from you ...
Why? I love action shooting, but maybe not everyone prints. At the Black Sea Cup, I filmed mentally. Falls, for example - others simply do not have time to film it. Or when people run across the shore to the other side, usually they don't take pictures, and this is the most interesting thing! Andrey Khitrovo was also sitting there, decorating the tripod with grass, filming it, and this was during the final! But he, too, is too fixated on his windsurfing, he would still see other sides.
Grizzly (Natalya Lapina) shoots well, but she sticks out in the mountains all the time. The effect of work - I mean the investment and the break from the trip - is reduced to zero. She doesn't give her photos anywhere, it's just the way of life. It is not difficult to remove something, especially if you are in the subject. But I think that the question is different - in the effectiveness of shooting. If you don't give it anywhere, why do you need it? It's easier for the young, of course. They do not have families, how much they earned - they spent the same amount on themselves. And I still have to feed my family. And besides, money is needed for travel in order to move.
Over the course of his life, Andrei has accumulated a huge number of different shooting points: for example, in a photo with birds, where there is no action, you had to frighten off the seagulls, or wait until sunset to tint the water so that the photo carries some kind of message. In general, these are photos with birds - they are the most difficult. At the very least, you need to read a book about how birds are filmed. You have to make many variations so that you can later appeal to them in memory. Shoot from different, all the time new points. Look for them everywhere, even in a cafe: a reflection in a glass, a lamp, a metal fork, and so on ...
In this regard, there are three questions at once: have you thought about opening your courses? Where did you study yourself? Do you always put some kind of message for the viewer into your photos?
Andrey starts with the last question. The message - any creative message - should come from within, not from the outside. If a person just hooked a big camera to him and looks like a fashion photographer, there will be no sense. I did not study anywhere, I was engaged in birds. The dream was - to release the identifier of the birds of the USSR, I thought, at first, with hand-drawn pictures. But drawing every feather - you can kill yourself to draw it! The bird is easier to photograph. I quickly realized that a bird cannot be removed with an ordinary camera. Then, in the 70s, the choice was not great, there was only one dream - a reflex camera, you can attach binoculars, a telescope to it, and then the bird will be closer.
I photographed nature, birds and everything for a long time, from 1976 to 1988, and then quit my main job - I got tired of sitting in a "box". I was a test engineer flying helicopters. Not because I wanted to fly, but simply did not have time to go to VGIK, I did not want to join the army, and I entered the Institute of Cartography and Photo, because the name had the word "photo". They taught professional technical photography, so I know what modern photographers do not know. Then, nevertheless, it was done by hand: developing, light ... Now the concept of light is completely absent, so I recommend everyone to complete the courses in order to get at least some concepts about it. Because when you have gone through the whole process of printing, you have a completely different attitude to it ...
Courses. Well, I have posted several in different magazines. But you know, to a person who has a concept, a base, understands something in photography, I will tell all the secrets in half an hour. If he doesn't understand anything, then what to talk to him about?
It's all simple - just to understand. You just have to look at photo magazines, try to shoot as well as there. And do a lot of options. Shoot from different angles. Right now I am sitting in a cafe and I see a lot of symbols around. I can shoot American pubs here, and no one will believe that it is in Moscow. One must be able to abstract from the situation. Many writers are guilty of this if they do not know the situation, cannot describe it. Abstract thinking must be developed ...
Yes, it also happens. Is it possible to travel in the city too?
Yes, at my dacha I still travel - I stick my head in the grass, and this journey begins! I shoot ants in the grass with a macro lens. The neighbors then look - amazed: "Where did you take this?" Yes, here, I say, here ...
What are your plans?
I want to go to Crimea, take pictures of flowers - primroses. I already know the place, and the time, I already see the pictures, I just need to pack up and go.
Then, I am now interested in the following things. I want to launch a series of unusual books about nature. That is, you take and come up with an unusual theme: "Yellow in nature", for example. It can be anything: sunset and sunrise, foliage, yellow fish, butterflies, bird feathers, apples - this is the topic, at least you need to think of it. Why are tropical fish all yellow?
I shoot different things, sometimes rodeos, sometimes killer ants, sometimes crocodiles, so I'm not bored.
It is necessary to look at the photograph wider. By the way, I have a friend, a fashion photographer, who, having worked for ten years in this genre, has tied it up. Although he had an office in Berlin, and a name - he just had seen enough of these naked girls, and his wife is a fashion model, he is sick of it. And he took and joked to shoot photographs on the subject of the Bible, very interesting for the modern world, the message carries, at least, he thinks so. And many do not think. What does boring mean? It’s boring when you’re on the track, make a name for yourself and continue to work in the same genre. And you buy yourself a box - and to Antarctica, shoot starfishes. Or cross the desert after the killer ants, and then it will definitely not be sad! What you see will move like that!
Do you know what happens to climbers when they reach the top? They begin to devastate if there are no new peaks. So are those people who have few goals. He experiences devastation who has few ideas. Whoever has them has no time to experience devastation ...
Andrei, but how did it happen - firstly, love of travel and, as a result, photography. Or vice versa: photography and, as a result, travel?
Since childhood, I traveled a lot, went hiking, in 1994 I got into a conversation with Jacek Palkiewicz, a great Polish traveler. This is his idea - a journalistic journey. For the first one, you look for money to go to some exotic country, go, shoot, sell materials, and then with this money you go to the next one. Theoretically, once you go on a trip, you work like that. So I went to Guinea, to the tribe of cannibals. True, I sold the car, but I realized that with a certain minimum of money, you can go anywhere. The longer the time spent in the country, the less costs. That's how I traveled: I myself found money, drove, took pictures. Then they began to invite me, first submariners, then basers, then the magazine "Vertical World", then all the magazines ... One pulls the other. By the way, I somehow had a record: 143 photographs in one extreme magazine along with the cover.
And what kinds of extreme sports are you fond of?
Oh, well, I started skiing a long time ago. Then, scuba diving. Well, then, if you have coordination, understanding, you can master any kind of activity, surfing, kayak, paragliding, great. In Utah, traveled all the canyons by bike with one famous bike traveler. But I don’t just ride. I'm not wasting my energy. I have a specific goal - if I go, I shoot. I once tried it without a camera in Turkey. I only survived 4 days. You lie on the beach, whiskey, beer, yes, but why do you need all this? You can also lie - but with a photo camera!
Interviewed by Lena Andrianova
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