The oneiric expansion of reality
The feeling is the same as watching Nolan’s film Inception: a mixture of dream, surrealism and timeless suspension. Vadym Yatsun engulfs you in his world, completely parallel, fascinating, detached from all problems, anxiety, fear. A visual enchantment, inclined to use geometries, formal alchemy, multi-layered stratifications. The success of the shot remains an unknown until it happens and one sees the result.
How did you get into photography?
I started out as a musician and as such I was quite attached to theatre performances, to stage design. This gave a strong impetus to my stage propensity. I started out as a photographer to produce visual material on my own, but gradually photography caught my attention completely.
I developed my approach to light and filters, looking for something unusual. I came to the UK from Ukraine and had some interesting material with me as I experimented with light, started modulating different filters and glass. The way you compose light, filter it, build your picture, emphasise every detail. I proceed on different levels and in the end the colour gives a sense of magic.
How much in the composition is natural and how much artificial?
80, 90 per cent is natural on average, we add something in post production. I spend a lot of time on Photoshop, shaping the details, with a major focus on the hair. Nothing in the end is perfect, we are people who sink into details.
I find AI very interesting, I use it for retouching, to add 3D elements that emphasise the image. We shouldn’t be afraid of it, it will make so many things easier and faster but people need people.
What is the creative process? How do you build moodboards?
It depends on the project, it starts with an idea which in turn springs from an inspiration. There, you start ‘digging’ in an assiduous work that involves many skills: lighting, stage designer, stylist, make-up artist, photographer… everything starts from the initial topic. Things pile up around it.
Thus, piece by piece, the moodboard is born, it takes days -sometimes weeks- to arrive at the completion of the picture.
The composition requires the right choice of all the pieces, great importance is obviously given to styling, hair, make-up, which I take special care of. On set you can spend eight, ten hours, even more. It depends.
Among your works there is a digital garden with an aseptic, hybridised beauty in it. How do you see the relationship with technology?
Together with our art director, Margot, we created this idea of a digital garden, which anyone could do today with the help of AI. But our creative process was to draw it in our minds, create it with a three-dimensional morphology, shoot the model, define the hair and styling and then start playing with the background, increasing the level of complexity. This work requires us to be ductile, to transform vision into creative matter.
There is a strong suggestion in your photos, you have a unique style. Where did you draw your archetype, your primary inspiration from?
So many things, nature, colours, art seen around the world. Of course, when I go to the Tate gallery I am impressed. But often it is also the people, amazing people, seen on the street. Or the dozens of extraordinary things done by others that motivate you. The driving force for me are the complex challenges, the things that are difficult to realise. Of course the technical study, the experimentation, counts a lot.
Is the world of fashion galvanising for you?
The dress is an important part of the suggestion, but it always depends on contingent factors. A beautiful dress with defined style characteristics can also be a source of inspiration. I pay a lot of attention to young, emerging designers.
You have a passion for hair…
I love hair because it creates shapes, already in Ukraine, my home country, I was working with brands and magazines focused on hair. My experience in the industry continued in London and put me in contact with hair stylists, make-up artists, giving me clarity on the correct process to build a moodboard.
A fascination with dark, somewhat disturbing elements emerges at times in your photos
This is fertile ground, drawing a little from tragedy, from the dark side of the living being, showing strong emotions: these are areas of aesthetic exploration that I use.
What is beauty to you?
Often what people consider ugly is what is unconventional. It impresses me to see that on Instagram now everyone has the same nose, the same cheeks, the same ironed hair…really boring. My heroes are a bit crazy, they have unconventional hair and make-up, things you don’t see in the real world and that makes them interesting.
CREDITS: Photographer Vadym Yatsun | Instagram @vadim_yatsun
