ABOUT ME

As a photographer, I'm both young and old at the same time.

I was born in 1973, in the small city of the USSR. In the 1980s, I made my first shots with a Soviet camera, the Smena 8M, that wasn’t even mine. I learned how to develop film and was captivated by the magic of combining light, glass, and chemicals in the right proportions to create something that touches your emotions.

Later, in the 2000s, digital cameras were invented, and within a few years, almost every smartphone was equipped with a camera, with image quality improving every year. Literally everyone became a photographer. In 2007 I moved to Moscow, and since 2010 started to travel a lot. I used pocket cameras until 2014, when, after a trip to Lisbon and looking at the pictures I took of that insanely beautiful city with my pocket-sized PowerShot, I suddenly realized that the best souvenir you can bring from your travels are the photos you take. And if so, it’s better to be real good!

I decided to get something bigger and better, and since it doesn’t fit in the pocket, it should be the best full-frame camera I can afford. So, in 2015, after intensive research, I bought a Canon 5D Mark III with a 24-70mm lens.

By that time, to me, it was nothing more than an expensive hobby, but I loved it more and more every day. Learning photography didn’t even feel like an effort to me; I was like a sponge, absorbing and digesting almost any photography-related information I could find. God bless the digital era, where you can learn almost everything without leaving your chair!

Later, I started to think about how I could make some money with photography. I tried stock photography but wasn’t excited about selling my time for peanuts or maybe I just wasn’t that kind of guy. Then, suddenly, my friend, an actress, asked me to shoot a few portraits for her portfolio because, as she said, “you have this big camera.” It was done the next day, and I guess that first session pointed me in the direction I’m still moving towards.

Before that, I wasn’t even thinking of shooting portraits. “Eew, people!” my inner introvert rolled his eyes, “they’re moving unpredictably, they’re always unhappy with the results, and you have to INTERACT with them, so think twice!” But it looked like a good opportunity – people pay more money for portraits! So, I started searching for any portrait photography-related information I could find.

In 2017 I first saw a B&H master class of a New York portrait and headshot photographer, Peter Hurley, and it was something I had never seen before: fun, contagious, with simple yet fantastic-looking results.

At that time, Peter shot on a Hasselblad, and I thought: “Of course his pictures are gorgeous! He uses a medium-format camera, how couldn’t they be? I wish I had a camera like that…” Later, I saw another video where he shot on some crop-sensor Rebel with three cheap flashes, but the results were still insanely cool. At that moment, I realized: it’s not about the camera. I joined the Headshot Crew, Peter’s coaching platform for photographers, and in about a year became an Associate member, but I'm still learning something new every day.

In 2022, I moved to Barcelona, where I now live and work as a headshot and portrait photographer. I still think that the human face is the most interesting subject to photograph in the whole universe, believe that being photogenic is not about having exceptional facial features but about the ability to control the existing ones, and I'm happy that I have the ability to prove that all people are beautiful.

Today is 2024. I’m in Barcelona, capturing portraits, headshots, events, this beautiful city, the sea, nature, and more. I’m also teaching others how to shoot, and my story is still being written.

If you want to be part of this story, from the other side of the camera as a client or from the same side as a student – let me know!