It all started when I was a kid. My father used to shoot 35 mm camera, and we used to set a darkroom in our bathroom, develop film and print photos together.
I loved it, it all seemed like magic to me. I was not allowed to use my father’s camera, so I was dreaming of having a camera of my own.
Then my parents got divorced, and the magic was gone. Years later, my godmother got a Polaroid 600 camera. I remember being so jealous, but we couldn’t afford to buy a Polaroid, so I had to put this dream aside.
When I was 16, Mom gave me Kodak Cameo Motordrive compact camera. I was so in love with it! I carried it with me everywhere. I was taking pictures of my family, friends, sunsets, seashells, trees, anything really)
But with time I got busy with life, work, lost my camera and kind of forgot about it all.
Until 2008 when a friend of mine showed me his mini collection of old cameras and offered to make pinhole cameras together. My pinhole camera was a disaster, but I got so inspired that I borrowed one of my friends’ cameras and shot a few rolls. Then I bought Canon A1, and later Hasselblad.
At that time, I was active on Flickr and stumbled on Bastian Kalous’s account. His polaroids took my breath away. Later I discovered Dan Ryan, Lukas Brinkmann, S.F.Said (The Gentleman Amateur), and other amazing artists. I was so impressed by their polaroid photography. It was so different, it had a completely different feeling and I wanted to have it too.
So, in 2011 I finally got my first Polaroid camera. I have more than one now. I shoot with Polaroid 195, SX70, and Polaroid 600. Love them all)
I shoot mostly nature. I spend a lot of time outdoors. I think there’s nothing better than walking through woods, wandering in the fields, hiking uphills…
Sleeping by the lake, waking up with the sun, and seeing the fog so thick, you can touch it. That air, gentle touch of the wind, whispering trees, silence, and music. It’s completely overwhelming.
Most of the time, I feel that it’s just impossible to capture all this magic. So I’m just looking and breathing, trying to take it all in so I could carry it with me wherever I go.
And sometimes I take my camera and try to capture that particular moment so I would always remember the feeling, the music, the silence. Somehow, I feel like polaroid is made for moments like that.