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faq - frequently asked questions
please be aware this text has been created in 2001
Who are you?
Without going into details, I am a Russian computer guy, now living in Silicon Valley,
California. I like photography; I have been an amateur photographer all my life.
During late 80s and early 90s I participated in a lot of group exhibitions. I also
had several one man shows. At the same time I put together several exhibitions of
modern art in the university where I was studying. Nowadays I mostly take pictures
for myself and for family and friends left behind in Russia, to try and to give
them a feel for what life on this side of the ocean looks like.
What is LOMO portfolio?
LOMO portfolio is a collection of several hundred photographs that were taken
in mid-1980s...early 1990s. "Conceptualism" was the buzz word among the crowd dabbling in modern
art then. The objective was to beat a theme to death: you fill a wall or a book with pictures
on one topic and after that there was nothing anyone could do with this subject matter.
Later it became mainstream and no one was much surprised by a book of
portraits of people with milk mustaches.
I think I was one of the first in late 80s to do a collection on passers-by shot from
behind, and lots of people did that after me.
Landscapes and what I called "urban pop-art" (unusual objects in urban
surroundings) were my tribute to traditional photography.
Some photographs on this site are related to lomography only through the use of the
same instrument. They were taken with a LOMO-compact (also known as LCA - LOMO Compact Automat).
What is lomography?
Lomography was sort of an artistic hoax created by two ingenious Austrian students
who made millions on it. :) Here is how it works: follow 10 peculiar picture-taking
rules, take pictures of everything that catches your eye, print them all up, even
the blurred ones, and arrange them side by side on a wall. Quite a lot of people
around the world got involved with the technique.
Why are some of your pictures so blurry? Why do you still display them?
With LOMO you often take pictures from your hip, without aiming or looking
through the viewfinder. The camera sets the speed automatically, and when there is low
light it is quite slow. If camera or the object you are shooting moves, the
picture will come out blurry. Whether to think of them as garbage
or as a "piece of art" is your personal choice. In the lomography philosophy
blurry images are not garbage.
What cameras do you use now?
[Well, this text is from late 2001...] I am happy with the Leica-minilux working with film. I often don't feel like
spending time developing images through wet process, so I use digital technology
instead. I own a Sony DSC-70. I don't like its reverie much. It is extremely
slow, but lets me indulge my laziness. :)
[Late 2006 update:] I currently shoot digital only. Instead of Lomo-compact I wear on my pants belt
a small Canon SD400 (also known as IXUS 50). When I care about image quality I shoot with Nikon D2H with
either Nikkor 17-35/2.8 or Russian manual focus fish-eye Zenitar 16/2.8, or few other lenses.
[Early 2009 update:] I'm back to film - bought Leica M6, and enjoying it very much. I also use
Ricoh GX-200 as an everyday always-with-me camera.
And what about LOMO?
I own a couple of LOMOs. I use them for off-line exhibitions as displays. :)
Where to see your current works?
Here is my flickr stream.
What about off-line exhibitions?
I do them sometimes. Visit the News section or e-mail me and I will keep you informed.
If you have publically accessible walls to hang pictures on, let me know.
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