Who is the person behind the photos?

I was born in a small city in a small country. Usually people don’t know where is Belarus but almost all know the painter Mark Shagall who was born in Vitebsk and became famous in Paris in the beginning XX century.
I live in Vitebsk now and work as freelance photographer. 
I like: words, texts, computers, old things, empty spaces, mornings, tea and old jeans.
I don't like: animals and plants at home, weddings, loud people and X-Mas.


How did you discover photography and what makes you keep on doing it?
Ten years ago my good friend give me a Zenit with 135 mm lens and I justl ooked into this camera and fall in love, but I also have watch the movie "American Beauty" and understood that I like to collect seconds. After that when I was in USA I bought my first digital camera.
But I understood what I wanted in photography only when I started to shoot on film in 2009-2010. 
Now I use Rolleiflex FX+ It, a camera with chrome parts and brown leather with some beautiful scratches. It is looks great with my grey shoes, green pants, cyan t-shirt with small brown pikes.  I have also an old Rolleiflex 2.8c which came from the legendary time of Richard Avedon, Diana Arbus, Francesca Woodman, "Blow Up"  the movie and great rock bands. 
And I really like how I look with these cameras.
The best way to inspire is understand that photography is a big world which become bigger and bigger every day. It is an OTHER UNIVERSE. We can discover, create, destroy, think about this world. You can create new rules! It a big game and the goal is create something new, but you must be honest. 
Also sometimes I don't want to be  a photographer . And I know that I can do this. I find inspiration in dreams about usual life without thinking about PHOTO UNIVERSE. I dream about just shooting "snapshots" for memory.


Is there anything you want to show through your pictures?

We can speak about this from different angles.
1) I try to find a new way of making portrait with available light, 80 mm lens, 6x6 cm frame and speeds between 1/25 - 1 sec. I don't like similar composition. Yes, I "do" what I need and "use" people. It is like a game which need concentration and intuition.
2) I don't know what I need. Once it is a new gesture which is related with person in front of the camera. Sometimes it is light, or a new object in the hand or on the clothes.
I look and wait when people give me photo.
3) I try to find a moment of silence when I can be "invisible" and the person stays alone with the camera. This moment happen when all my attention  is concentrated on the person in front of the camera. I don't think, I just see and try to find, I am waiting. I kill my Ego. If this happen I become "invisible". 
At the end I have a picture with my personal "marks" and "signs", but also it have something real and personal which connected me with the model.
Briefly, I want to show people without photographer in the eyes.

What are your hobbies besides photography?
It is hard to have a hobby when you "fall in love" with photography. I like to read books, I try to find books with good language. I mean that words and how they are connected by the writer are more interesting  than "action". In 2012 I start to read books about media, image and philosophy of photography. Now it very inspired me. 


Who are your models and what is your relationship with them?
- Usually I take portraits of people who know me. Sometimes we meet for the first time and spend together a couple  of hours, we speak, drink tea and I press the button. But I have photos which I did in the street with strangers. It is a project "On early days" -a selection of straight portraits of young people.


Which artist would you like to work with?
Nobody.
:-) 
I have enough information from the pictures and images.
But I want to meet with Alec Soth and ask him about his "carpenters career".


Do you expect anything from your photographic future?
I try not to expect . I have some plans. I work and shoot. I want to publish a book with portraits, do some exhibitions. I need this to finish this part of my photo practice.
It is interesting to see how my life change by the "game of photography". I try to be honest and take photos that I want, love and need. In 2013 my approach to photography start to change. I feel that I don't want to take portraits or need to change my method of shooting. 
I find more powerful to understand how to tell stories, and how to connect text and image in most useful way.

Alex Veledzimovich