Dare to see, be ready to imagine. Interview with Olga Ilyina

Turning trivial into bright & breathtaking, sinking deeply into the soul, making us stop & stare and bring the image in the depth of memory.As one knows, any picture is precise but never reveals the truth, if it will be a picture by Olga Ilyina, I'm for such cute illusion :-). Voila, we're glad to get you know about Olga Ilyina and her world of beauty.

                                                              

How did you realize the photography is a preoccupation of yours?

It was when I caught myself on the thought that after taking pictures for a year I didn’t get sick of it, moreover, I was eager to improve and get skilled more than ever. And of course, realizing that something decent comes out of my camera, though I must admit this feeling had been coming to me much oftener at the very beginning  than it actually does.

Who/what serves as a source of your inspiration? Can it be a special moment in your life, positive mood, working with models/charming people or maybe affection?

My goal is my inspiration and the more I work the closer to it I am. I’m also attracted to brand new things like freshly discovered models that didn’t manage to become an eyesore to everybody’s eyes because of being present everywhere, new unusual places and, of course, works by the reputable photographers.

What does one need to get a good picture?

One needs appearance, plasticity, to feel free in front the lens and…to be in tune with the photographer. That’s so true about fashion and beauty shoots. Being honest, I’m cautious about using these terms as I consider them to be inappropriate in our country as opposed to the US & Europe.

Of course, many of us can say that all the people have their own kind of beauty and that a real profy will make any model look like a cover girl and so on but it’s another story.

How do you come up with new shooting ideas?

In different ways. It happens that I try to find a look for a given model, sometimes it happens that the whole look is built up around some detail, accessory, a thing or a place. And in general I follow western photographers’ work, analyze their pictures, sometimes I borrow an idea and make it look my way.

Previously I was worried about creating something new, unseen, didn’t want anyone to repeat my works. But after one case I got it perfectly well that the bicycle was invented long before me and that everybody takes the ideas that have been taken long before them. Finally, each photographer brings a part of his personality, his vision, retouching techniques. So at the end having a common idea at the departure, they come up with two completely different shots.

                                                                                                             

                                                         Can you recollect your best shooting?


I’ll sound trite here but according to Imogen Cunningham my best picture/shooting is the one I’ll do the next day. It’s hard to argue with that since when I’m choosing the pictures from another shooting, I like many of them , after further selections I like some pictures and in a month I can hardly understand how I could have done such crappy shoots. But it’s good since I notice my slips and mistakes i.e. I’m moving forward.

Can you approach a stranger with a shooting offer?

That happened twice in my career and both times it turned a complete disaster. I wanted to stop the shootings as fast as it was possible. So now these cases stop me from doing so. But if I see my etalon of the model I won’t fail to come with a shooting offer.

What is the most memorable reaction for pictures?

In general the reaction is uniform. I’m more alert when a person is keeping silent without showing any emotions: neither positive, nor negative. I recollect a moment when a girl looked through the pictures took them silently and left. In a couple of hours she rang me back and told that she was enraptured and she was shocked at the beginning and she needed some time to recover.

Which photographers do you consider to be talented? Whom would you like to make a shooting with?

Putting aside the acknowledged photographers, the first names to occur among actually successful ones are Arefieva and Grinchenko. I wouldn’t apparently make a common shooting as I believe that there’s a room for only one photographer at a time, as for another one, he can only assist.

Do you like being shot?

I was fond of being photographed before the moment I got a camera in my own hands. Now I got completely estranged of being in front of camera and try to avoid accidental shots as I’m not satisfied with the result.

What’s beauty for you? Can appearance be a cause for shooting-offer?

Beauty for me is a synonym of uniqueness. There are lots of pretty girls and there’s nobody to photograph. I’ve divided the female appearance into “beauty queens” and “models”. Beauty queens are bright, memorable type with curves, in the majority of cases with tuning like hair extension& false nails.

These girls attract the opposite sex. I could photograph such a girl once as she’ll look alike with different looks.

Models for me are tall, lean girls with regular features that can be transformed into ten different unrecognizable persons with the help of make-up, that’s what matters the most for me.  Now I’m attracted to unconventional beauty girls whom I call the “alien girls”.

In general if a girl, guy has really interesting unusual features,
that’s enough for me to offer a shooting. Speaking about the rest, it can be “sticked together” during the shooting. Summarizing, a model with unusual beauty, with an out of the box attitude and a bit of charisma, plasticity and some experience is a real godsend for a photographer, to my mind.

Is there a future for the photography in Belarus?

Speaking about commercial photography, there is definitely a future for the photographers, but not in Belarus. Here companies prefer to download a picture from the web rather than finance the authentic concept and its creation. Here they underestimate the ad’s role in general. Of course, there are some exclusions among large entities that would most probably address Moscow or Kiev based PR agencies than to local photographers & creators.There is an immense concurrence among the amatory photographers in Belarus, those who are professional enough or have a potential, leave their home at the first opportunity so as to get paid how they deserve it.

                                                                                       To see more of the works, check out her gallery.