Wandering Minds

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID OLKARNY 

Merge us on your background, where are you from and how did photography happen to you?

It was my second year studying cinematography that I discovered the universe of photography by buying my first digital camera which, at first, was planned for shooting and various recordings. I was amazed by the quality of the pictures that resulted from my new toy and the simple idea to have the ability of catching intense scenes or even to create them made me shiver. I had to become a photographer, it was obvious.

Your work is very diverse. You have done fashion, wedding, fine portraits and travel pictures. Do you feel that it’s hard to define your work? 

I really like different domains in photography, it help me to fight the “routine”. The most important is to tell a story in one picture, to suggest a narration to the viewer who is free to interpret however he wants to.

Colorful pictures, an outside universe, away from the studios, a dose of surreal, fantasy and weightlessness. My works tend to surrealism; there is a lot of staging with sometimes quite fetched situations. That allows me to distract myself from the reality and to present my own vision of the world.

Now that you take time to travel and discover the world, do you feel that your photography process has changed or if your sensitivity has changed toward any view you had?

Definitely, yes, the more we travel further, the more wonderful it gets to shoot. I really need to travel a lot to feel again and again the magic part of the photography.

I personally think that each time you post a picture up its just wonderful. Is there any picture you have taken that you feel absolutely proud of? If so, please provide and describe why it moves you.

I’m not satisfied with my work (as a lot of artists) but lately from my Thailand’s images I’m very touched by this picture This is really simple but there’s something, something true and affecting.

On series that really caught my attention was ‘Have you met Karl?’ How do you come up with these concept ideas?

It was few years ago, during the winter, it was awfully cold outside but I really wanted to shoot and I needed to find an interesting model… Karl was there! It was really fun, I guess I’m gonna shoot again with this little guy.

Where do you get your inspiration for your art?

My inspiration can come when I’m at the cinema or simply in my daily life: while I’m driving my car I mark places, when I’m in the store queue I’m sometimes struck by a face’s expression, when I’m in the forest I watch the trees and I imagine how I could make them “alive” in photography or when I’m at home I feel like the furniture seems to be too static and it makes me want to “move out”.

Can you describe us the workflow from the idea to the final image?

I begin by choosing a place outside that speaks to me with a beautiful view.
Then I select an appropriate model for this place, and it is here that I implement improvisation on the spot of the shooting. I do not prepare in advance, a precise staging is always spontaneous and I can always imagine a scenario at the time of the shooting.
Then I return home, the very important step here is to take the lot 2 or 3 of the best photos from the shooting to edit on the photoshop.
Arrived on photoshop, it can take several hours to edit the colors, transform the reality and in a nutshell, bring a little magic to the images.

Any other message to the up and coming artists?

My advice for the end ; Make photos for yourself and not try to please a gallery or the public. I think that it’s really important and a lot of photographers plunge further in this direction. Be crazy, passionate, impulsive, audacious but some technical knowledge are not superfluous

Conversation between Hanae and David.
Visit David’s Facebook page here: David Olkarny Photography