Katya Rashkevich and her fairy-tale worlds

Today we will talk about photography. Photographer Katya Rashkevich will tell us about her fairy-tale worlds. Katya Rashkevich is a wedding photographer, but she also has just wonderful works in other areas - photo art, children's photo sessions.

1. Katya, why did you decide to become a photographer? Can you call this profession your life's work?

For the first time I asked myself this question :) Indeed, I never thought about what led me to this profession. I became a photographer relatively recently. Just 3 years ago. Before that, I was just an amateur and never thought that this profession would become for me really the work of my life. At some point, I left my main job (I was then working as a marketing director in a banking structure) and threw myself into the pool headlong. I just really wanted to become a photographer. This desire was so strong that I had not an ounce of doubt. But I remember that as a child I loved to shoot on film. I somehow developed the negatives myself, printed photographs. Probably, something was already laid down from the very birth, but only I did not know about it for a very long time.

2. You are mainly involved in wedding photography, but you also have a great photo art. How do you come to such unreal, sometimes, it seems, as if otherworldly ideas? Where do you get your inspiration from?

Yes, I mostly shoot weddings, but I also shoot a lot in the studio. These are mainly children's photo shoots. Now it is very interesting for me to work with children's photo art, probably because of the fact that ideas for such works come to my mind. Well, where they come from, I still do not understand. Rather, I even realized that the idea comes in the process of work. For me, the main thing in photography, in the image as a whole, is the "picture", it is she who should "catch" and hold the viewer, so even if the idea is incredibly interesting, I will understand that technically I will not be able to convey it correctly and I will have to sacrifice " picture ”, I will give up this idea and come up with another.
The image is just as important, each person, it seems to me, has his own fairytale counterpart. If you look closely, then in each of us you can see either Cinderella, or Alice, or Pierrot ... ..that's how I try to see, and then draw :)

Well, I catch inspiration, it is quite difficult to draw it, it is either there or it is not, therefore, as soon as it appears, I try to use it 100%. There is another way, I open the sites of my favorite photographers and look at their work. There are several authors who always inspire me.

3. You very often refer to fairy-tale, literary, plots: Alice, girl Suok, and what is your favorite fairy tale?

Probably, this is "Three Fat Men", there is something attractive for me in this doll, in this plot. And I like Alice exactly as an image.

4. In some of your works there is some kind of surrealism, for example, a girl who carries a ship on a string, many allusions, fantasy works, dream works, some even describe you as Salvador Dali from photography, on the Internet in the comments such definitions are found :) Do you yourself agree with this definition of some of your works? How do you feel about the work of Salvador Dali?

I am madly in love with Salvador Dali. There is a lot of air, space in his works, each picture is infinity. Perhaps in my very early works you could notice some similarity, now - I don't think so. Now, it seems to me, I have gone a little the other way. Although, in any case, I, of course, am pleased that sometimes people draw such a parallel :)

5.I am very much interested in one of your work - Charlotte, this gorgeous red-haired girl with an apple on her head :) I sometimes cook charlotte. How did you get the idea?

By the way, this is a self-portrait changed beyond recognition. I used to be very interested in working with a portrait, so I just took a photo and tried to come up with something unreal and back it up with some idea. Charlotte was the first in the Seasons series to feature autumn. Therefore, it was she who gave me the idea for the subsequent works of this series. By the way, at the time of the creation of "Charlotte" I was just starting to photograph and draw. At that time, I had a serious shortage of models, and therefore I used either my self-portraits in my work, or literally created images in pieces. In many of my works, the faces of the characters are collected from different photographs. For me this activity was a kind of game. It was incredibly interesting for myself to observe how, in the process of working on the picture, an unfamiliar to me, pretty face appears

6. In your work, you are more of an artist than a photographer. Even your wedding photos are always something airy, a flight of fantasy. What do you think about documentary photography, could you do it?

Of course, I could do documentary filming. Another question is how I would have done it. As I already wrote, the main thing for me is the picture, the visual perception of something beautiful. For some, the plot is in the first place, and the emotions that it carries. It seems to me that it is too difficult to combine in oneself. But I certainly cannot help but be attracted by good reportage shots, and I have a lot of respect for photographers who can see a cool story and shoot it cool.

7. Katya, what photographers are your idols and teachers? Which of the contemporary photographers do you admire?

Probably, I will name those who really occupy a very important place for me in my life. First of all, this is Lena Vizerskaya or Kassandra. It was her work that once struck me so much that I felt the need to learn how to do something similar. It is her work that I revise to find inspiration. In wedding photography, I really like the work of Alexandras Babičius. In my opinion, he can ideally combine a cool reportage, excellent quality and artistry in photography.

8. Your idea of ​​beauty. What should be a handsome person?

What a difficult question :) If we talk about visual perception, then everyone has their own, so it's hard to say. And spiritual beauty…. In my opinion, there are people to whom you involuntarily reach out. It is easy to communicate with them and in friendship. They seem to glow and you always feel very easy next to them :) Although it seems to me that now it is very difficult to be a beautiful person for real, there are too many temptations and too little time to reflect on yourself and your actions.

9. Your motto for life.

I am very afraid of not being able to do something, and very afraid to stop in my creative development. I hate wasting time on problems and looking for solutions. I often just throw bad thoughts and some insoluble problems out of my head, because I know that they will solve themselves a little later. That is why I often remember the phrase that Scarlett O'Hara said: "I will not think about it today, I will think about it tomorrow ..."