Andryukha Kamenev. Another life with Andrey Kamenev. What do you think are the limits of a photographer's creative freedom? How free he is to do what he wants, and not what is required of him
ANDREY KAMENEV , one of the most famous Moscow photographers, admits: “I am always dissatisfied with myself as a professional. But this is normal: one has only 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 for 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 are able to 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 the West and the East. Or they contain an entire era, like the Appian Way in Rome, remembering the heavy tread of the ancient legionaries ...
Text Andrey Kamenev Photo Andrey Kamenev
Roads sooner or later had to appear in my biography - traveling the world, I drove a total of almost a million kilometers. At some point, all these distances and routes began to move from the geographic 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 as unusual as 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, but 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 turns 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 that meet 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 dare to do 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
Giant 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 amazingly beautiful and majestic, despite the fact that there are many marshes and wetlands. This road leads to the Kruglaya hill. Time is mid-June. In Moscow, the lilacs have already bloomed, 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 significant places for them with prayers on pieces of cloth that resemble colored flags. Each prayer has a specific color.
Bends 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 unclear how heavy equipment was brought 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, National park Jasper
It is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites 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 popular Russian photographers: there is not a single major 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 that 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 areas, 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 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 “spicy” heroes, whom Vladimir knows how to see, understand, make different all the time and always very beautiful. Overall, his life is ready script 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 for 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.
Was in marketing and quit at twenty-five successful career a Panasonic manager to finally take up photography professionally.
I bought myself a regular camera, made a portfolio of pictures of my friends and tried to get a job in some newspaper. For a long time he received refusals, 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 photographic portraits made by Byazrov. So he became a cover photographer.
He began photographing celebrities in 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 that were 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, let's 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 when I was twelve years old 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 very 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 that 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 turned out to be a technical college at MEPhI, 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: helped, gave literature. All the other loafers did not irritate me at all, on the contrary, we had fun from the bottom of our hearts.
"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. If it doesn't work out, I'll put on a white shirt and a 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. Store 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 move, but I didn't know how it's usually done. I had no friends-photographers who would have believed in me, invited me to be an assistant, gave the first order. In short, the ads that I scattered across the network 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 the 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?
This was not really 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 fully call myself a photographer. 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 was not broken, but the whole thing was 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 owns English language as freely 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 email, 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, stylist, make-up artist, studio, competently assemble all these components, shoot on high-quality film, and only then bring the material to us. And we are not interested in the photos of your girlfriends. "
And with this in mind, did you still go to Prague as a professional photographer?
I went, 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 brought 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 the producer, an acquaintance with a multinational film crew from America, the Czech Republic, France and other countries, a buffet table again ...
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 ordered a lot of 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 turned out 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's no wonder that I returned to my homeland with a feeling full confidence in itself.
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 Chief Editor Oleg Anisimov, without hesitation, took me to a position that combined the duties of a photographer and photo editor.
I worked there for a long time, about two years. It was a wonderful time, a time for the fulfillment of a cherished dream. This 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, during the work, about twenty issues were published, 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 had 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. I received invitations from many magazines, but I did not 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 realized 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 subject matter - 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 it's fun to work with the stars, but it's probably 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 that's pretty a big problem, because even though I'm a gentle and kind guy, I'm still from the Caucasus, which means I'm 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 about everything. In such cases, I do not postpone the shooting, because I want to be as professional as possible in my field. 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. Sergey 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 continuously interfered in the work process: they told Sergei how to look, how to turn. When they finally pissed me off, I said: "Guys, if we no longer work, 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 in my studio again. 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 didn’t say hello, she came with a bodyguard who didn’t 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 a person who wanted to please: 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 do 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 one cannot go beyond - a special look, branded gestures, a glamorous style of clothing. But Sergey Zverev always works great with a 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. The 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 means that at the right moment on the stage, on the one hand, behave like a star, and on the other, like ordinary girls. 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 TV light, 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 genre dynamic photography. It was assumed that if suddenly something goes wrong, then you can always "take photoshopping". 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 did not like the result, because during the filming, being carried away by the image, she could not track 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 pose were her prerequisites. As a result, I put Masha in the foreground, put one softbox a little 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. It is quite another matter - 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 major performances, they are given two or three songs to be filmed, but here they were given one and a half, which is 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 hard 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 which you really enjoy working?
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, mentally "twist" him into a pose, and he has already rebuilt into it. Absolute harmony. I also really enjoy working with Linda. I took pictures of her many times and admired how she enters 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, so it happened. This is not true, because a good photo session is always a result. working together model and 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 photographer and tireless traveler. Perhaps, it is difficult to find a place on the map of our country, wherever he has visited. And often these are hard-to-reach areas, where a person's foot rarely treads. 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 
take pictures of your guests or relatives on a holiday with an old wooden camera. We charged a couple of cassettes with glass plates in red light, put the apparatus 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 kind of picture that creates a certain state. Taking pictures of views couldn't be easier. And at the same time, it is more difficult. I don’t take pictures of Moscow, because I “don’t see” it, I don’t have my own 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 a particular city. The frames of the plane move apart, and a state is born - that is, what makes landscape photography an art.
Still, the movement must 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 large camera: I set up a tripod, cover myself with a rag, and until I shake the frame, I will not leave this place. I show it myself in the bathroom. Why go to exercise somewhere across the whole of 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, if given the opportunity, photograph these animals. 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.
It is normal and not a single shot during the day is taken. It’s perfectly normal. I have been to Lake Baikal twice. Didn't take anything off. 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 conditions in early spring or late autumn. When the ice starts to crumble and the storms are driving the ice floes. To get a good feel for any landscape, you have to live in it for some time.
I started photographing at the age of 14 with my father's FED. At that time I was drawing birds, because I wanted to publish the book "Birds of Russia", collected all information about them, and then at some point it dawned on me: it's easier not to draw all these feathers, but to photograph. I took the "FED" and began to shoot. Then there was "FED-3", then, and so smoothly and got involved. However, he abandoned the birds.
I have not studied photography anywhere, I just looked at magazines. I have been collecting since childhood. I have almost all the numbers. I used to take it from second-hand booksellers. I remember in Soviet times there was a special store on the Nikitsky Gate. I found it there for the first time and found it in 1976.
After leaving school, I wanted to enter the VGIK at the camera department. I came to submit documents, and they say to me: “Everything is fine, but only creative competition ended in March. " As a result, he entered MIIGAIK, Moscow Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Photography and Cartography. Not a cameraman, of course, but the word "photo" was present.
He graduated from the institute and was assigned to a closed research institute. He flew in a helicopter with a parachute and a life jacket. There was not even a trace of a photo there, but, however, he earned a lot of money.
In 1988, I got sick of it all. I quit the research institute and decided that I would be a photographer. Went on central newspapers show your photos. They looked in the newspapers and said: "Old man, awesome, but there is no regular unit." It ended up being in. At the same time, I had not yet filmed sports and was not particularly interested in it even.
Why is sports photojournalism good? She teaches to think quickly, instantly. There will be no repeat. If you didn't score a goal, they'll screw you up.
From 91 to 93 he tried to publish magazines, but nothing happened. In 1993, the publishers were let down, they had to pay with their own money and leave the business. Then I realized that everything, I no longer publish magazines. I put together my album with slides and went through the editors again. I once tried to count my publications. It turned out that I managed to work with more than 200 different publications a year.
In 1994 he met a famous journalist and traveler. His working principle was very simple. He called it "journalistic journey". You choose some point in the world, interesting, not beaten, go there, work it out, bring material, sell, return money, make a profit. The money that he returned can be spent again on some kind of expedition. I decided to try it. I needed an initial amount and a good place... For my first trip, I chose the western part of the island of New Guinea, Irian Jayu, where the cannibals live. I collected the money and drove off. The trip was a success. I returned the money for a long time, but nevertheless everything became clear to me. These Papuans, by the way, are still bought from me.
At first, I was terribly complex because of the language. When in 1991 I left for France for the first time, I felt like a complete sheep: I can neither read nor say anything. I came back and decided to learn the language. Took a French textbook. I had enough for 10 days, but due to the fact that I began to travel a lot, I was able to overcome this barrier. Help out intonation, facial expressions, the fact that many words in different languages are similar, the very situations in which you find yourself. Now I don't care where to go and what language they speak. At the household level, I communicate very easily.
In 1998, the first Russian extreme movie "Alaska, the land of extreme" was filmed. There were seven of us: three riders, two cameramen, myself and the editor-in-chief of "Vertical World". The operators said that they were skating, but when they were dropped off from the helicopter to the top and they saw a 55-degree slope, they refused. All hope is on me, there is no one else: they had to take them off for 6 weeks. So I started to specialize in extreme sports.
The number of situations I have been in over these 20 plus years is outrageous. Nothing scares me. The problem is different - little touches. As a child, I had a 10-volume encyclopedia with colored tabs, and on them the Borneo jungle, Angel Falls, coral reefs. So, I visited all the places that I saw on these tabs as a child. Everything, except, perhaps, the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island. But I don’t want to go there, because I saw a million shots from there and I absolutely know what to shoot there and where what stones are located.
There are probably no exclusive places left. Now everything is completely filmed. Once I was looking for information about Irian Jaya on the Internet, where I filmed cannibals in the 90s. Believe it or not, I found a photo of my leader. Sitting on a stone ... with a laptop!
Easy to do beautiful photo not difficult at all. Many people know how to take good photographs, but they cannot be added to a good story. One hundred beautiful sunsets is not history. They shoot like the last time, like an exhibition, so that it is good, so that it hangs. And nobody removes passing shots. You can't think like that.
I call this scorched earth tactics. If you are filming a walking hunter, you should shoot him in a shallow general shot, walking in close at you, from the side through the forest. The more templates a photographer has, that is, the situations in which he was, the easier it is for him. Over the years of shooting, I have accumulated these templates to hell.
In master classes I say:“Guys, a simple task: here's a white table, here's a white lighter. Take 10 different shots. " If there is nothing to shoot, and you can take 10 different shots, then in a situation where there are a million subjects, you will be like a fish in water.
My wife loves traveling. We choose a large country with her (USA, Australia, Argentina), take a car, sit down and go on a trip for a month or two.
I can get together anywhere in the world except Antarctica in two hours. Antarctica will need three. Sleeping bag, tent, camera, tripod, things in a backpack - and off you go.
There are photographers who shoot well and make good materials, but cannot sell them. Sometimes they complained to me: “Here you come, you gave it away - it was taken from you. And I come, bring, look and do not take. " "How do you come?" - I ask. "Well, I come and show them - they look and say that it is not necessary." “Well done! Do you have any idea how many photos a photo editor sees in his life? He is sick of any photos! If you don’t tell that you drove for five days, here you climbed onto a rock, that this is the most interesting place on the whole Earth, they will not hear you. They need this information, your story. " There are millions of such photographers. Chat guys, chat! Dispose to yourself. This is the only way to do something else in photography. If you just come and bring your pictures, nobody needs them.
It's the same with the person you are filming. Somewhere I drank vodka with him, somewhere I winked, somewhere I helped, and he will play along with you if necessary.
It takes work and study to be a good photographer. Explore the world, study life, gather information.
It's not about the money. The money I make is not that big. You can earn more, but you have to push hard. And there is no point in resisting. What for?
I have huge archives. No magazine will ever print so many pictures in its life so I want to bring my Planetpics project to mind on the Internet. I sit with a computer, work for my own pleasure. When work is enjoyable, I don’t even notice if I’ve eaten anything or not.
The pictures are beautiful, but often it is very difficult at the time of shooting. When I climb some kind of mountain, I stand on skis for eight hours, sometimes I swear: "What the hell am I doing here?" But in reality, of course, I know. I know that it will be good later.
I already thought somehow about whether I could ever give up photography. Was 92 years old, we were in Lyon, walked all night with a Frenchman in a restaurant. And so he showed us a gangster-looking man who was sitting next to him over some trough of spaghetti. “Here,” he says, “this is your former colleague. He was also a photojournalist, and then he gave up, and now he has a very hard job. " I then thought that I could not give it up.
Once, while filming on a paraglider, I landed unsuccessfully, received 16 fractures. They even wanted to amputate a leg. I then thought that in principle, in order to continue, I do not need so much - one eye and one finger, and you can move around in a wheelchair. And then, after all, I take pictures with my eyes, you can't get rid of this, and the camera is needed only for the card to work.
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, 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 on this schedule for the last 15 years. Over the years, he traveled seven dozen countries, breaking different types transport over four million kilometers. 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 work better than others, otherwise he will die of hunger. But I just can't 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 freelancer?
There they have narrow specialization: one shoots 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 the trips on my own. For example, in the early 90s, I learned about the preparation of a mountaineering 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 such a sacrifice justified?
Of course! 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 with the help of cigarettes. Literally everyone smokes there: small children, women, old people ... I gave them all my supplies of tobacco 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. I 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, we are also bitten, 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?
Just 15 years ago, there were enough such places in the world. Today there are very few of them. These are mainly areas 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 had been waiting for permission for several years. 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 aborigines are so wild that they shoot arrows even at fishermen if they swim too close to the shore. In a word, my friends and I decided to go. At one's own risk. Foreigners are still allowed into the capital of the islands, but 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 quite a 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, 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 there 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'm calm about snakes. 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 they threw me 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 the serum does not always help. If the reptile has snagged, it is necessary to chop the place of the bite with a knife "into cabbage", to drain more blood. But they didn't bite me. 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 are more likely to 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 from 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 challenging 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 on a rope from the Ostankino tower, and in almost complete darkness ... And then climb up again!
How many sports did you have to master for the sake of spectacular shots?
Mountaineering; I learned to ski passably; 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 a strong wind. I crashed into an icy slope. The result is 16 foot fractures and a 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 challenging 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 who dived 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 rather 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 were 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 for another 20 minutes. I was filming. 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 nearby, 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 take pictures.
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, it was still necessary to get to them: 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 an awning - and under it you arrange a quiet hour. 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 a dirt road, you do not notice holes covered with dust. You can easily roll over. And most of all I was struck 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. For years people hang out there, 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 road users with gestures when and where you turn. 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, losing very little money. Consider seeing the whole country for almost nothing.
Did you master the northern routes too?
Once I was invited to 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. Outside - minus 50 ° С 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 doesn’t work, it’s frozen. He took a cutting 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 it up, in a word. They rented a Toyota Camry in New Zealand and had a bullet in it for two months. In one of last days we were braked by a policeman for overspeeding. The fine is $ 300. But for some reason we haven’t drawn 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 threshold 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 all 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 does 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 hundreds of miles, watched the construction of a house in a new place. 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
Into work - headlong
He considers 1991 to be his 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 diving is 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 Polar region 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 well received. 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 did not publish 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 also, probably, with the atmosphere of "extreme". After all, the underwater world - the world of peace and silence, streamlined forms and the play of light and shade - really does not know peace: there is a continuous struggle for life, much, perhaps, cruel than on land. The larva of a swimming beetle plunges tentacles into the tadpole ... Medusa shoots stinging cells at the victim ... 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. In parallel 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 one day I decided to try a paraglider. The experiment ended unsuccessfully: there was a strong cold wind (as they say, "speaker"), and the dome 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 was not 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 over time he stopped limping.
Time spent in the hospital and on crutches, earnings. of course, it didn’t. As soon as Andrey started to "run", he "loaded" the Russian editions in full - the archive was rich. It was 1995 - young glossy magazines vied with each other to print "great travels". One after another, "Observer", "Voyage", "Domovoy" published Kamenev's reports: about snake-catchers in Turkmenistan (where Andrei tried himself as a catcher himself), 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 Papuans, photographed their life and customs.
The trip to the Andaman Islands, which is to the 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 scuba dived and paraglided in the Bay of Bengal. 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". The reportage about the 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 "Verical World" expedition, where he filmed not only nature, but also extreme sports, including underwater.
As for diving surveys, here the geography of KAMENEV is basically unparalleled: 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 through the dunes ...
He did not pass by his homeland either. 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 by car across Central Asia - I was in all the former republics, from where I brought "three bags of slides." On Far East, in the Sikhote-Alin taiga, "face to face" photographed the Ussuri tigers. 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 passed with the Russian women's team on a motor inflatable boat over 2,000 km - 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 it too much, but we know. that if he had not taken out the bike, ripped off the riptek and "drowned" at a depth of 15 meters, our team would never have taken the honorable third place.
Closing 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 remained uncovered, Latin America and "black" Africa. 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 worked.
However, this does not mean that KAMENEV will calm down and read on his laurels. A very restless person.
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, he already, with no less interest, lies with a macro lens in the grass in his country house, 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 all over the world, and has taken an incredible number of photographs, looks so energetic, cheerful and “unstressed”.
Some people say that here is Andrei Kamenev, what is it about him? Why are there photographs of him 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. For example, Valery Rozov's bass - here really, sorry, young people won't be able to, you need to have shooting experience. Got to be in the right place in 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 need to calculate everything - I have to 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, he hasn’t charged the flash, or the batteries have run out, this is not a conversation. If you are like that, you will quickly start conflicts, you simply will not be taken next time. You need to gain 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! You need to be able to explain, prove, convince, communicate. One will come - they will not look at his photographs, I will come with his own photographs - and they will be posted. You have to be both athletic and responsible, and possess technique, and be sociable. And the one who scandals, who does not know how to 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 film anything you want. But I'm not sure if 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 photography, 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 don’t pretend to be an extreme photographer ... I have traveled for three winters now: in Australia I was, here, there, I generally fell 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 to the multimedia races I went to Krasnaya Polyana.
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 an underwater macro panorama underwater. By the way, this is my know-how - both macro photography and panoramic photography. I "glue" it together on the computer from two pictures.
By the way, I wanted to ask you, do you have the feeling that you are not creating anything new, that you stay on the same level?
No. Even to find the right points, you constantly have to invent. Here you have only three shooting options in base: bottom, top, side, and that's it. And Valera Rozov and I came up with such "fishing rods". You hang yourself on a rope, and then you carry yourself 4 meters from the wall with such a rod, and you take pictures from a new angle.
Then, our magazines ("Boards" and "Onboard") ask to shoot storyboards or overall plan, and you try to take off the krupnyak! It is in the last 10 years that there has been a tendency towards enlargement in sports photography, so that a person can see emotions when jumping. And it’s important for magazines to see where he jumped from, so it’s 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 exhibition VERTMIR EXTREME PHOTO (exhibition of extreme photographs of the magazine "Vertical World", the first Russian magazine about extreme) I won with just such a photo. 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 Stubai to the glacier, took ice axes, found a beautiful place, Artem climbed there, I took pictures, and it turned out cool. We steamed, thought, filmed, and now everyone is getting heavier, and I'm getting heavier ... Or rather, I have other goals and objectives. Now I am interested in my own projects: I want to publish books about nature. And then there is still a matter of budgets. The same paraglider - either in the suburbs to remove it, or in Bolivia. Either 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 famous American extreme photographer) has why such good photos: also because he has the opportunity to shoot the best riders in best locations- 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, the guys will say, but if you want good photo, then here you are, because the clothes are bright, and you, because you jump well, you have to ride there and there, and not today, but when the weather is good and the sun is bright, but for now train. 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 Artyom 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 - their guys have already appeared everywhere. Now everything is going as in the West - along the path of specialization.
Which of the “young” would you point out as modern professional photographers?
Well, they are no longer young. Slyuntay (Andrey Artyukhov) is probably the most professional photographer now. Incidentally, 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. Andrei 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 over 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.
And 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 do not take pictures, and this is the most interesting thing! Andrei 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 have to 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 dodge of the trip - is reduced to zero. She does not give her photographs anywhere, it's just the way of life. Removing something is not difficult, 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 for 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 - must come from the inside, not from the outside. If a person just attaches 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, there was not much choice, there was only one dream - reflex camera, you can attach binoculars, a telescope to it, and then the bird will be closer.
I took pictures of nature, birds and everything for a long time, from 1976 to 1988, and then I 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 didn’t 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 passed the entire printing process through yourself, you have a completely different attitude to it ...
Courses. Well, I've posted a few 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 no worse than there. And do a lot of options. Shoot from different angles. Now I am sitting in a cafe and I see a lot of symbols around. I can film 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?
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?" Why, I say, right 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 start 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 take photographs on the subject of the Bible, very interesting for 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 walking along the track, making a name for yourself and continuing to work in the same genre. And you buy yourself a box - and to Antarctica, to 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, there is 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, rented. 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.
What kinds of extreme sports are you fond of?
Oh, well, I got up on alpine 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 for 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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