kate kuzminova photographer

December part two

2012-01-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

Bob, the famous cat

December Part One

2012-01-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

Earth, wind and fire

2011-12-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've just realized I have just enough time to make a brief post - a lot's been going on, so more to follow, but in 2012 probably. Wonderful Christmas time>

Here is a sneak peek of a photoshoot I've done recently for my sister's project.

Paris, did I tell you I love you?

2011-11-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

Day of the dead

2011-11-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

Day of the dead at the Wellcome Collection, Euston Road, 05 Oct 2011

Mariachi Band

XL Wave

2011-11-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Please check my friend's new project - great source for inspiration. There's also my little contribution to it in the DOMINO section

XL WAVE

x

October

2011-11-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

October visual diary (doesn't look like it, I know).

SULK "Back in Bloom" video filming

2011-10-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

Stills from the SULK new video "Back in bloom" filming, which took place in Nottingham earlier this autumn.

Really enjoyed working with the Nottingham side of the team and the Turrell Brothers - John and Tom - the video directors. And of course the SULK - great band and great guys to work with. I will post the video link here when available, meanwhile check their website SULK THE BAND.

Beautiful people. NPG Glamour Factory, October 2011, London

2011-10-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

September

2011-09-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

A visual diary of my September moves around Greece, London, Nottingham and Bracknell Forest.

Whitstable

2011-09-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

A photo-diary diary of one of last summer's trips to Whitstable, Kent.

Work work work

2011-09-13T01:37:00.000-07:00

Some work images from my recent shoot for Shi Cashmere S/S 2012 campaign and lookbook. The images will be used for New York trade show catalogue, as well as for Belgravia store next season window.
Make-up Kelly Mendiola, Model Lauren Broadhead

Summer

2011-08-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially over in just a few days. My "inner" summer has finished, and I quite enjoyed editing and selecting some images I took during my sister' stay here in the UK to post them here. Here are some snapshots from our trips around London, Oxford, Cotswold, Secret Garden Party festival and Brighton.

Prix de la Photographie Paris

2011-06-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce that my latest "Origami" series have been awarded a Gold medal in Fine-art, Still-life category at Prix de la Photographie Paris. The jury selected PX3 2011’s winners from thousands of photography entries from over 85 countries. The exhibition opens on Wednesday 29th of June at Espace Dupont, Paris.

Px3 is juried by top international decision-makers in the photography industry: Carol Johnson, Curator of Photography of Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; Gilles Raynaldy, Director of Purpose, Paris; Viviene Esders, Expert près la Cour d'Appel de Paris; Mark Heflin, Director of American Illustration + American Photography, New York; Sara Rumens, Lifestyle Photo Editor of Grazia Magazine, London; Françoise Paviot, Director of Galerie Françoise Paviot, Paris; Chrisitine Ollier, Art Director of Filles du Calvaire, Paris; Natalie Johnson, Features Editor of Digital Photographer Magazine, London; Natalie Belayche, Director of Visual Delight, Paris; Kenan Aktulun, VP/Creative Director of Digitas, New York; Chiara Mariani, Photo Editor of Corriere della Sera Magazine, Italy; Arnaud Adida, Director of Acte 2 Gallery/Agency, Paris; Jeannette Mariani, Director of 13 Sévigné Gallery, Paris; Bernard Utudjian, Director of Galerie Polaris, Paris; Agnès Voltz, Director of Chambre Avec Vues, Paris; and Alice Gabriner, World Picture Editor of Time Magazine, New York.

ABOUT PX3:

The "Prix de la Photographie Paris" (Px3) strives to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. The winners in each of the categories - Advertising, Book, Fine Art, Nature, Portraiture, and Press - have been invited to exhibit their work at Espace DUPON in Paris during the month of July. Now in its fifth year, Px3 strives to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and to introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. Winning photographs from this competition are also published in the high-quality, full-color Px3 Annual Book.

Paris Je T'aime

2011-05-18T04:08:00.000-07:00

I cannot stop loving this city - discover new things to love about it every time I visit...

Some images from my recent trip.

Add caption

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a wonderful day, the day of the royal wedding, and I am very glad that I spent it out there, in central London, with my camera. It was a day full of great atmosphere of celebration and everyone could feel the union of people of different nationalities and backgrounds.

Luckily it was not raining, the sky was grey and unhappy, but the crowd was wonderful, people were chatting with strangers, smiling and greeting every person or car going down the Mall and preparing last bits and pieces before the celebration begins.

I spent few hours around the area truly enjoying the atmosphere, and slowly heading to Trafalgar square to see the wedding ceremony live on a big screen there.

Here are some pictures I took that day.

Dull morning 7a.m. in front of the Palace

Best seats are taken

These ladies were especially proud of their copies of royal engagement rings

St.Jamese's park

First trip to london with her parents. Just look at that crown! )

The Mall before it all started

It was a long wait for the 1st rows, but smile is still there

Loved that bench crowd. Waiting in St.Jamese's park

...first marches are about to start

Guards marching to the Abbey to greet the Royals

and another cutie )

Pearly queens, kings, princesses and pinces

Part of the route to the Westminster Abbey

Trafalgar' Square crowd

Ed singing God Save the Queen with a crowd

...and some champagne to celebrate

Just married! God bless them!

Confetti and Nelson's column

Childhood memoirs

2011-02-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

Pictures from my project "Childhood memoirs", wish I submitted with my application for MA Photography course. I got the place on the course and would like to share it with you.

Karova gig

2011-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

Pictures from a gig by Camden based band Karova (which means a caw in Russian and was the name of the milkbar in Clockwork Orange).

work

2010-12-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Some recent results of my work. My photograph in Shi Cashmere shop window in Belgravia.

Some updates and Test Beauty2

2010-12-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long time again since my latest post. And it happened not because I had nothing to say, but because I had too much going on. November was full of shoots – both tests and jobs. I will update my website with some new portraits I took in London and during my visit home this month. The exciting news are, as some of you might already know, I started my hopefully long-running project on Circus and was shooting Moscow circus on ice for a few days. I will continue doing it next year, but am very happy that I have put the foundation to something I have been planning for such a long time!

Another thing to share is that I have been offered a place for an MA Photography course at London College of Communications. I will write more on this subject in one of my future posts soon.

As you already know I do test beauty shoots with a wonderful person and makeup artist Kelly Mendiola. This time we had a great team again. Here are some pictures from one of our recent photoshoot.

Makeup: Kelly Mendiola

Hair stylist: Kiki

Manicurist: Steph

Model: Anika@First Model Management

Photographer’s assistant: Elena Pirogova

Dasha

2010-10-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

Today here are few more photographs of my sister from my archive. I was thinking to create a separate page on my website with her portraits. Maybe one day I'll do. Miss her very much.

Robyn

2010-10-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Busy times. I noticed that this time of a year in London is always the busiest – I would say especially now. I came to the conclusion that my next investment in photography will be… a good pair of trainers. Apparently my tired legs won over a new camera (pricewise as well). When I’m working on a shoot I stop noticing inconvenience or discomfort, physically I become a sort of a mechanism, noticing my tiredness and loses only when the shoot is over. Unfortunately sometimes it results in bruises and corns afterwards – but does it matter when you are happy with the photographs? Anyway, as I said, a good pair of comfortable trainers will be a good help.

I want to post today about my recent shoot of a wonderful friend of mine Robyn. A random shot of her I took this year at the Secret Garden Party was my inspiration. For some reason her Lamb hat bought for the festival had some mystical connection to her as a person for me – I loved seeing her in it. So I asked to bring it to the shoot – and it felt so organic for her to have it on. Here are some pictures we took that day.

New practice in photography?

2010-10-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine recently about 2^nd photographer on a shoot. I was surprised to hear about that kind of practice so much that I was thinking about it a lot.

Apparently the practice exists when a 2^nd photographer comes to somebody else’s photoshoot and takes pictures at the same time as the shoot happens and then, here’s what surprised and disturbed me the most, put his name under those pictures – in fact takes possession of the photographs taken by him…

I tried to figure out what exactly made me outraged in the whole idea of it.

I started thinking what actually makes a good photograph. The most important thing is a moment caught with a help of a camera, but also it’s an idea, light and technical ability of course. If to consider such a style of photography as reportage, then the moment caught is essential, and other things are uncontrolled in most cases, then everything depends on that moment – I am not talking about that kind of things. A good example is to have 2^nd or even 3d photographer at a wedding - it is widely spread and it’s great to have 2 or even more pairs of eyes, hands, visions and cameras to portray the important day.

But what about for example fashion or still life photography? These 2 will be good examples and they came first to my mind while thinking about this practice. How does a photographer work on creating a picture in these 2 cases? I have been to Sarah Moon’s talk recently and she said many important things there. One of the things she said about fashion photography is that it has a ceiling, and I totally agree. It is so hard to photograph something not an obvious way, make something special and that’s where the ceiling appears... Then great light and idea for the shoot become absolutely essential for a good photograph. I would even say that ability to work with these 2 things unique way make a photographer a great photographer. There comes the hard work – to think of a good idea, the mood of a shoot, the light to use, get some references and present them to the team you are going to work with. These things don’t come easily – they include a lot of practice, knowledge, personal taste, education etc. – many different factors. Then the shoot happens. Another important thing for fashion is a good model, who understands an idea and acts accordingly – brings good poses, facial expressions - to help the photographer to achieve the result…

Thinking about all that I just cannot see why somebody else can come, make some shots and put his authorship under these pictures… after all the major work is done by someone else and what you need to do is to catch a moment, which is important but is only just a small part of the whole thing? I do not understand...

I was trying to think of an example, where a photographer comes to photograph somebody else’s set, and the 1^st thing which came to my mind is a film set photography, when a director needs to get some stills of the movie. The situation is very similar to what I was talking about. There is enormous amount of work included in making a movie. A photographer comes and photographs all those beautifully dressed character, amazing backgrounds. The photographer also adds to those pictures his ability to use light and his vision, but even in that case in credits to the photograph there is always a place where the photograph was taken mentioned, at which film set.

If to compare this to a fashion photoshoot, the honest way for the 2^nd photographer would be to put under the picture these something like “picture taken at a photoshoot (name of the story) by (name of the photographer)”. Am I right?

I honestly didn’t know about existence of that practice of double “authorship”. It should feel irritating to have someone else behind you back taking picture of yield of your thoughts, worries and practices. I never tried and will never do it (well, I don’t practice fashion photography anyway) – that’s for sure :) If I’m been asked to be the 2^nd photographer – I personally don’t think I could ever put my name under the photograph taken – just because I know how hard it is to bring a great photoshoot together and how much work needs to be done at pre-production.

That's how I see it. x

Postcards from Morocco

2010-10-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

Here we are - finally I got my hands on my abandoned blog.This pictures were taken during my short trip to Morocco in September this year. My old film camera is definitely not as good as it used to be - good to know anyway - the exposure meter is broken. Sad, as it travelled with me everywhere and I have some good memories shared with it. My Canon AE-1 Program (released 1978) was serving me very well for over 10 years (?!) and it was one of my first cameras. Just found out that It's quite cheap now - just about 30 pounds on ebay including a lense (I paid 5 times more I think!). There's no point to fix it I'm afraid. I am also spoiled with medium format Hasselblad now - an object of desire - so this will be my next step in analog photography.
There were some problem either with a scanner, or with the film, as you can see. But I decided I like it that way, so I left them as they are - all in all it works better.

Argan oil production, Taroudant

the flying goats

Agadir

Kasbah

Shipbuilding factory, Agadir

...

2010-08-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

I was planning to create this post for quite a long time.

The photographs were comissioned by the "Sunny city" charity in my home town Novosibirsk, Russia. My task was to make simple portraits for this kids at the Orphanage for infants, so that they would have pictures of their own and also for their future parents. These were the most important photographs I ever did.

It was very emotional photoshoot, which took me 2 days in total to complete. I don't feel like I am able to explain here all the mixture of feelings I got from it. Here are some of the photographs I took.

Secret Garden Party

2010-07-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

Time of one's life. Four days of joy, fun and happiness at Secret Garden Party Festival.


a wedding


just married

Tarusa

2010-07-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

Long time no news. It was a long way back to the UK. After 3 weeks spent here I still feel not quite like I'm actually back.

One of my last stops of my journey back was Tarusa - a small town 140 km south of Moscow, where my friend Alexandra stays in their family country house for summer. These were 2 days of calmness, fresh air, goat's milk and amazing atmosphere of pure rural Russia. Long walks, long nights in with my dear and her little son - I forgot about television, internet and all other goods of modern world. Tarusa is the place where time slows down, as it used to be when I was a child...

Here's what I found in Wikipedia about the place Wikipedia

And some of the pictures are below.

Love is all you need

2010-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

My friends Alena and Dima, 18 April 2010, Ob sea.

Ivan's birthday

2010-05-26T04:11:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I replaced one photographer and photographed children from an orphanage. It was Ivan's birthday that day, he became 12, so a Charity organised special entertainment for those children - Ivan and his friends. It was not the first time I photographed children from orphanage and I was always amazed how childness and maturity combine in them. They want the same things as usual children, but many more things can make them happier - things we don't appreciate when they are so usual and affordable. Their eyes are so experienced and thoughtful. In a quite moment I tried to look at those children's eyes and imagine what they were thinking about...

No title

2010-05-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

The spring is coming and leaving Novosibirsk. As my friend said, there are 4 seasons in a week at my region. That's true. I am quite sensitive to weather - now I really want some sun and warmth, but it has not been like that for few days. I found these pictures I took a couple of months ago and decided they represent my current mood very well. Here they are.
The place I photographed is called The Ob sea (informally, as wickipedia says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk_Reservoir )

Great Victory Day - 9th of May

2010-05-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

oday is the Victory day’s 65th Anniversary. It’s one of the biggest holidays for all Russians (and former Soviet Union citizens). More than 26 million people died in Great Patriotic War 1941-45, fighting against Nazi Germany. There is no family which hasn’t lost a family member, close relative, a husband, father, wife. Today I went to the parade commemorated to this day. I find these people, veterans, men and women, who survived the horrors of the war, wearing their medals, holding red carnations, very touching . Most of them who are still alive nowadays went through it being very young – we can hardly imagine what it’s been like – thanks to them. Wish them long-long life, and they will never be forgotten.

This Lady (shame on me that I didn't wright down her name) came to front when she was 16 years old, she was just 20 in may 1945...

Sailor,Sailor

2010-05-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is going to be a decisive day (one of them) - so sleepless night made me sit and work on some pictures I’ve photographed during these months, which was not bad at all. I had a lot of inspiration recently. Finally I saw “Life through a lens” about Annie Leibovitz, I was also reading about Diane Arbus - whose work I admire more and more.

I’m posting here a couple of photographs from my shoot – an idea I had long time ago – thankfully I had my best model at hand too. It’s about dreams and summer, when it’s so close.

Anna in Bloom

2010-04-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

My beautifl friend Anna's preagnancy shoot. I did not expect to be so nervous about a pregnant model –didn’t want to make her tired, or to ask to do much - I never shot pregnant women before. I think finally I was more anxious and tired than the model - she was brave, vigorous and so beautiful!

P.S. 2 weeks ago she bacame the mother of a wonderful girl Masha.

Hot Zex shoot, 2003

2010-04-19T04:27:00.000-07:00

Here's what I found recently in my archives - a photoshoot I did in 2003 for my friends - a band called "Hot Zex" - to promote their upcoming gig. It was collaboration of a designer, me, as a photographer, and the band - our homage to The Beatles' album “With the Beatles”. The guys started the gig with “She said she said” – that was a very nice version of one of my favorite songs, and a lot of fun - I mean the gig and the shoot.

Siberian Fashion Week backstage

2010-04-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from my backstage shoot of Siberian Fashion week. It's been a new experience for me, which will lead to a new project I'm starting to work on hopefully soon...

Nowruz

2010-03-24T01:32:00.000-07:00

My trip to Kazakhstan happened to be the days when Kazakhstan (as well as some other Asian countries) celebrated Nowruz - New Year - the biggest national holiday. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in the ancient calendar. I could not resist to take some pictures.

Letters from home

2010-03-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

It's great to be back home! It's the first time in about 6 years I'm spending so much time here. Wired feeling. Listening to music I was fond of long time ago, look through old photographs. I didn't realise how many things I have forgotten - just left them behind, never had a thought of them during theseyears. I think it is good to move forward, but also to look back from time to time.

P.S. Going to Kazakhstan tomorrow for 4 days, havent been there for about 10 eyars or so...

Shi Cashmere Autumn/Winter 2010 shoot

2010-02-24T01:23:00.000-08:00

It was my almost first experience to shoot a collection lookbook for the same company for the 2nd time. We also decided to work with the same model and same make-up artist, as the combination was just perfect. This time we knew exactly what to expect from each other. Lauren - the model - knew the poses Shi likes the most and also the poses complementing shapes and textures of the clothes. Kelly knew the make up requirements very well too. I used different colour background and lighting setup this time, but tried to keep same look for the brand. I think it is great to work with same people on a project, who are not only professional, but also very nice and comfortable to work with. Such a luck! Of course it doesn't happen every time, but this time I really enjoyed it.
Here are some image shots we did in the end of the day - and as a perfect finish of a shoot I always like - we had some fun with a scarf and unpredictable, unplanned shots.

Test beauty shoot2

2010-02-24T00:25:00.000-08:00

Here is some selection of final images from the test beauty shoot I posted soem information before.

Backup

2009-12-18T13:06:00.001-08:00

Importance of backup. I've been told to many times to backup all the imformation on my computer and, most importantly, all my pictures... Well, I actually did, but not everything. My last photoshoots were waiting to be backed up at the moment when my hard drive collapsed. Everyone who will ever be reading this, please save everything you have now and resave it again somewhere else. Thank you )

Raymond's exhibition

2009-12-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I was pleased to attend my dear friend's Raymond's exhibition at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.

Interesting work was shown by University's students, but my main point of attention was of course Raymon Tan's work. The concept was based on 6 basic emotions people can have and the way a viewer feels when confronted by these images. Great concept and and amazing images and video instalaltion - good example of transformation of photography, digital art and a concept into work which makes you think and analise yourself. Well done, Ray!

Couple of snapshots from the privat view.

2009-12-15T02:54:00.000-08:00

Every day in the underground I'm passing by a poster of NPG "Beatles to Bowie" exhibition with a portrait of young David Bowie by David Wedgbury on it. This picture really makes my day. It's outstandingly beautiful in its simplicity and power. It is a true photographic piece of work - caught moment in history, expression, light. I'm a believer that this is what photography should be, this is what a photographer should do - reflect this world in it's beauty and ugliness first of all. There is nothing we should invent - the world is beautiful enough, probably even more than we are able to see.

I think that great photographers in general can see a bit more than anyone else. This is what is called "photographers eye" - to see and be able to show something the way people can not see or express it. There is so much more in our heads than one can express in words and, more difficult, visually. When a picture can say something, say more than one can express and see - this is a true work of art, this is what I love in photography. Considering that there are too many bad photographs nowadays, which do not have visual impact, or, more often, have nothing to say.

I need to admit, that I'm talking now about real photography, not digitalised works - which are forms of art, but actually not true photography I believe.

So, yes, that picture makes my day and reminds me what I really-really want to achieve.

NPG "Beatles to Bowie. the 6os exposed"

2009-12-05T04:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a very nice day, even weather - frosty and sunny (in the morning). For me just snow was missing. After spending 25 years of my life in the region where snow is something ordinary, now I really miss it (I did not think I would). How beautiful that is when it's sunny cold day, everything around you is so purely white and every little snowflake reflects sun with 100s of sparkles... Sounds like fairy tale, but when it's so far away I remember it just like that.
Found some old snapshots...

Test beauty shoot

2009-12-02T04:11:00.001-08:00

Here we are. Some “backstage” pictures from a test shoot I’ve done recently. It’s the first proper model shoot I’ve done at home, in my new little studio. I’m trying to get everything I could out of space I have and out of lights I have at home, so that shoot was a big trial.

It is very important during the shoot to keep sense of humour, relaxed atmosphere. That’s why this shoot was a successful example for me. To the end it all want so crazy and funny – that’s where I got my fav shots.

Thanks to Kelly Mendiola for great job done, as always.

Sonicflyer photoshoot

2009-11-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

Few "backstage" shots from the recent photoshoot for band called "Sonicflyer". Check them out - a brother (drums) and sister (lead singer/guitar) have some great songs with beautiful melodies.

link to myspace

The photoshoot was great fun. Special thanks to Raymond Tan (on a bicycle). And please see results on the myspace page soon.

"Project" magazine shoot

2009-11-18T04:46:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from the "Project" magazine shoot I was assisting recently. The magazine is promising to be great. Wish them all the good luck!

Photographer: Elena Pirogova
Props/idea: Rebecca Coleman
Stylist: Vanessa Mazzon
Make-up: Sandra Bermingham

Printspace photography competition

2009-11-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

I'm announce to admit that my image was one of chosen and commended by the judjes of Printspace photography competition. Hurray!

facebook link

Shi Cashmere photoshoot, october 2009

2009-11-13T03:23:00.001-08:00

A few shots from my recent shoot for Shi Cashmere lookbook and also some image shots.

Make-up: Kelly Mendiola

Model: Lauren Brooke

Style/design: Shi Nazemi

Work, work, work!

2009-10-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted something here. No pictures for now. Just an update, as I'm working hard on updates for my website. It will be updated in the next couple of days. Besides that there will be a big commissioned fashion shoot on Sunday, my picture submission to the Printspace photography competition this month, and french lessons I'm starting soon. To be continued...

Narborough Hall Gardens

2009-09-25T04:28:00.000-07:00

This week I visited beautiful Narboroug Hall in Norfolk. Wake up at 4am to be there and start shooting at 6 - the best light and the most beautiful atmosphere of awaking nature. The Hall is a lovely friendly place - nice people, great breakfast at the cafeteria and of course beautiful-beautiful garden. More photographs will appear on my website soon.

Spring walk

2009-09-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Found this archive video of my dear fellow photographers, filmed in the end of May 2009. That was a very good time...