Some photographers try to capture reality. Others run away from it. Fairy tale-inspired photography is a tricky new field, but several Ukrainian photographers are already nailing it.
Lviv photographer Oleg Oprisco, 26, stands out from the crowd of competitors. In his photos, he creates a whimsical world using only old Soviet-made analogue cameras: Kyiv 6C and Kyiv 88. Moreover, he uses Photoshop for color correction and dust removal only.
He makes his surreal shots using decorations and carefully chosen costumes that are almost always made especially for the photo shoot.
Young as he is, Oprisco already has 10 years of experience in photography. His career included a job in a photo lab, and commercial photography job in Kyiv, which he found boring.
When in 2009 he tried Kyiv 6C, a Soviet-made camera produced in 1970s. It was that very moment that gave Oprisco a direction he keeps till now.
Today the photographer has representatives who sell his works in France, the UK and the U.S. The prices start at $149 for a printed photo of one square foot. In Ukraine he has nearly no sales.
Still, he doesn’t consider leaving Ukraine.
“It is easier to shoot here,” he says. “I regularly get requests from people willing to participate in my shootings, so I have a big database of models almost in every Ukrainian city”.
Lviv photographer Oleg Oprisco, 26, makes surreal shots.
Oprisco isn’t the only fantasy photographer from Ukraine selling abroad.
Freckled bright-eyed girls with tree branches growing out of the heads are among the memorable characters created by 26-year-old self-taught photo artist Anita Stoyan from Dnipropetrovsk, known as Anita Anti. Thousands people follow her work online.
Some of her surrealistic portraits of women look like scenes from “Alice in Wonderland” and “Maleficent,” and others give the viewers the opportunity to imagine their own stories.
To achieve her trademark effect of a swirly blurred background, Stoyan uses an old Soviet manual lens Helios 77m-4, which she remodeled to make it compatible with a modern camera.
Many of the works are non-commercial, and even leave her in the red when she pays for decorations and costumes. Sometimes people pay her for a fantasy photo shoot, but these orders are not her preferred job.
Recently Stoyan has moved to the U.S., where she works for a postproduction photo studio. In her free time she does fine art photography, and dreams to make it her full-time job. In the U.S. she has more chances to pursue an art photographer career, she believes.
“If you want to become a photo artist and create art projects, then be ready to look for a job outside of Ukraine,” she says.
Experts agree. Little domestic demand for art photography makes photographers look for clients abroad, like Oprisko, or leave the country, like Stoyan.
“There are some Ukrainian photographers who do more than make technically correct shots, who seek to develop the photo language, but so far it doesn’t seem to be a general trend,” says Maya Anchel, project manager for Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, the organization that represents Ukrainian photographers in the international photography community.
Kyiv Post staff writer Victoria Petrenko can be reached at [email protected].
Oleg Oprisco (oprisco.com)
Oleg Oprisco (oprisco.com)
Oleg Oprisco (oprisco.com)
Oleg Oprisco (oprisco.com)
Oleg Oprisco (oprisco.com)
Oleg Oprisco (oprisco.com)
Anita Anti (facebook.com/AnitaAntiPhotography)
Anita Anti (facebook.com/AnitaAntiPhotography)
Anita Anti (facebook.com/AnitaAntiPhotography)
Anita Anti (facebook.com/AnitaAntiPhotography)
Anita Anti (facebook.com/AnitaAntiPhotography)
Anita Anti (facebook.com/AnitaAntiPhotography)
