The photographer's story: an unusual view of St. Petersburg on Veliky Novgorod
Nikolai Shchegolev - is a talented photographer whose photographs of the Il-2 flying over Veliky Novgorod on May 24 made a great impression on our editorial staff. His VKontakte page is full of unusual angles and inspiring meanings. The editorial board of the Steamship.Online, they asked him to talk about himself, about inspiration and looking into the lens.
– I was born in St. Petersburg. I started doing photography after school, and my special interest at that time was high-altitude photography of the city. By profession, I am a designer of radio-electronic systems, but it was very difficult to combine a large amount of my hobbies, headed by photography. Therefore, after defending my diploma, the very next day, I quit the design bureau where I worked, and from September I began working at the local Palace of Creativity in the laboratory of radio engineering, from which I graduated back in school years.
- Like any photographer, at some point I formed my own "creative glades" where I could express myself and hone my skills. So I almost completely went into the field of photography, in which I arrive to this day. There is also aviation, which is filmed not from the outside, but from the inside, there is also a railway (also filmed "from the inside"). Since 2017, he has been filming the series "The XI century of the steam locomotive", a short series about how steam giants of another era work in our century. The series has hardly been published anywhere (although one of the works in this series has become, in fact, my "calling card"), was partially shown at my first exhibition in February 2019, and, hopefully, will also be exhibited soon. The rest of the work is divided into a couple more episodes, which I am slowly doing, but what they are about and what they relate to, I will leave "behind the scenes" for now.
— The shooting of the Il-2 attack aircraft belonged to the Aviators series, however, it so happened that, being present at this unique event for me personally, I thoroughly exceeded my plan.
- My main theme in photographs, one way or another, is a person in his own space. This is what I would like to call a "psychological portrait", "a person at work", etc. People of working professions are very close to me in spirit, they have a special flavor of masters, and communication with them is very valuable to me. These are not necessarily railway workers, sailors or similar professions, there is still a layer of real master artists. At some point, I get very involved in what is happening, and some of my colleagues note that "I changed jobs again." The fact that I am absolutely naturally involved in any process plays a role. On the other hand, how else to shoot the most truthfully. The same steam locomotive, beautiful, smoking, noisy, but this is from the outside. There is also an inner part that makes him "alive" - these are the people themselves who are inside him. If I may say so, then my main goal in photographs is "the psychological accuracy of what is being shot."
- The choice of types is a matter of intuition: if you looked at the rest of the photos, even those not related to the subject of the aircraft, you could note "some strangeness of what is happening." I react to this "strangeness" by unconsciously pressing a button. The choice of people is about the same. But there is a little trick with the fact that I am almost not seen at close range. Therefore, they look natural in the frame.
- The year before last, I came to you in Tesovo on the UZD, did a story for the Blog Fiesta. This year I was shooting, in fact, for myself, because in a couple of publications where I offered work, there was no finance or interest. In the future, I plan to come and photograph the sights of Veliky Novgorod, for example. Other plans: shoot, shoot, shoot. To expose, and continue to shoot. There doesn't seem to be anything to add.
And we are waiting for new works by Nikolai, and we wish him creative success! The original was taken from Пароход.Онлайн