Portraits

Photographer: Sergei Tsimbalenko

1. What significant life experiences or events have influenced and shaped your artistic vision?

I was able to fulfill my dream and work in one of the most famous theaters in the world — the Taganka Theater, where for 20 years I studied the work of different masters, from directors and actors to artists and choreographers. Thanks to this experience, I developed an artistic vision, artistic taste and sense of frame, as well as a method of working with models.

2. Collaboration often sparks fresh creativity. Can you share an example of a collaboration that led to an unexpected and exciting artistic outcome?

Yes, once, while participating in the creation of a performance, I began to take photographs of rehearsals, one of the photographs became a powerful idea for a poster, which was warmly received by the theater and was used for a long time by the marketing department. This is how I discovered the ability to create posters. Over time, I began to create movie posters, as well as book covers. Now my photos are published on the covers of fashion magazines.

3. Walk us through a specific project that challenged your creative boundaries. How did you approach it, and what did you learn from the experience?

Once I was invited to do a photo shoot to promote a performance. The conditions were inconvenient, since I always prepare ideas in advance and like to control the place, light and tasks of the model. Here, everything went out of my control, since everything had already been invented and not invented by me. But I did not lose my head and found a way out: I began to direct a new performance within a performance! Carefully, but interfering with the light and the mise-en-scènes of the actor. A boring reportage photo shoot turned into the embodiment of the artistic idea of the performance. In the end, everything worked out. I did the same with inexperienced models who learned to embody a creative state in the frame right on the go — during the photo shoot.

4. In the ever-evolving art world, what do you believe sets your work apart and makes it unique or groundbreaking?

I've actually only just begun to approach the implementation of my ideas. And there's still a lot of interesting things ahead. The external and technical components of the frame are important (camera, light, location, model, costumes), but I'm not going to rely only on this: it's important to create a unique semantic and dramatic world around the model, in which it's important for the model not just to be present, but to inhabit it - to become an integral part of it, both externally and internally. There's still a big gap in this. And this is already a different way of working. Now I've already started this path, which confirms its correctness and effectiveness, and my models, who have no experience at all, look like real professionals in the photos.

5. As you reflect on your journey, are there any specific goals or milestones you've set for your artistic career in the coming years?

Yes, the goal is very simple: to work for top fashion magazines and take the fashion photography industry to the next level.

• Team Credits

  Photographer: Sergei Tsimbalenko

  Fashion Designer: Olga Komissarova

  Model: Olesia Rohulska

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