An interview with photograph artist Valeriia Milenina.
What initially sparked your interest in pursuing art, and how has your journey evolved since then?
It was a great confluence of different life circumstances. I liked to draw as a child, and one day my mother and I walked past an art school at the end of the summer and decided to stop by and, out of interest, try to pass the entrance exams. I passed, and so began my four-year acquaintance with academic art. Usually I was little attracted to modernist movements, and for my works I chose more classical executions, giving preference to easel painting.After graduating from art school, I realized that I had to give up academicism, and classical fine art seemed difficult to apply in life. I picked up a camera and photographed everything around me: people, nature, street style, family, some completely unremarkable details.
More than 5 years have passed since then. I live and work as a photographer in Moscow, I prefer shooting and street style, and in my free time I create small abstract series.
I am in love with creating work with attention to detail, colour andsense. I am inspired by the works of the impressionists and famous artists of the past. This, combined with a tenderness for film photographs and modern solutions, allows me to create works with a slight allusion to painting and analogue photography.
I picked up a camera and photographed everything around me: people, nature, street style, family, some completely unremarkable details.
Can you tell us about a specific piece of your artwork that holds particular significance to you, and what inspired its creation?
Now I am most attracted to the work “A№3”. It is new, fresher and a little different, there are no people here, but there are distinct forms, it is impersonal, and everyone can feel something of their own in it.
How do you navigate the balance between staying true to your artistic vision and experimenting with new techniques or styles?
Photographer is a profession where you always need to try to look differently, bring something new, look for angles and different connotations. I think I'm just at the beginning of my own journey. I try to focus on my own knowledge about composition and its perception, acquired in art school. I try to leave them at the core of the work, but I look at them through the prism of technology and using new technologies in processing, photomontage, and so on.
I try to focus on my own knowledge about composition and its perception, acquired in art school.
What role do you believe art plays in society, and how do you envision your work contributing to the artistic dialogue?
I am convinced that art, and photography in particular, should provide food for thought and aesthetically enrich both the author and the viewer. It also seems important to me that when creating works of art, it is necessary to remain true to this idea, and not to succumb to the influence of modern trends that vulgarize this area.
Often there are works with a strained meaning and idea. I try to make the work simpler, without an unnecessary deliberate idea, but aesthetically beautiful, cultivating the visual taste of me and the audience. Captions for my works - as a rule, my thoughts arise after I looked at it.
Often there are works with a strained meaning and idea. I try to make the work simpler, without an unnecessary deliberate idea, but aesthetically beautiful, cultivating the visual taste of me and the audience.
Are there any upcoming projects or themes that you're excited to explore in your future artworks, and if so, what draws you to these ideas?
I would like to create a series of product photographs dedicated to working with composition. Work with shapes and lines, unusual objects and elements of nature. A good composition attracts the eye and develops in us a taste and a sense of what is ideal or insufficient. I want to create a work that I want to look at for a long time or even hang in my apartment.
How do you hope your art will impact viewers, and what message or emotion do you aspire to convey through your creative expressions?
I would like to convey calm and delight. Give a person the opportunity to think, in peace and quiet, and not in stress, which becomes more and more familiar to us when we are left alone with our thoughts. It is very important for a person to be calm, and I believe that art, with its high ideals, can calm down a person’s everyday consumer needs, and draw attention to something more important.
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