 Today's episode of the photographic eyes very proudly brought to you by pick drop. How's it? How's it? Do you ever get that moment? You look at somebody's photography. You never heard of them before but instantly you fall in love. That was what happened when I checked out the work of Maria Zvobova. I do hope I'm pronouncing that correctly in her images called Swimming Pool. There we go. There's a fantastic book. There's a quote in the beginning of this book which I think absolutely sums up what I love about her work. She says here, the architecture of the past stirs emotions within me. It is a feeling that is not easy to define but I can feel it's urgent to pull on me. It is the nostalgia trickled with hints of melancholy that I love and wish to encapsulate in my photography. These photographs and they have that air of communist sort of feeling to them but Maria said that for her because of her age she's fairly young that the communist idea wasn't really a thing. It was more kind of like she's reacting to the space and there's when she talks about her approach to these photographs he said originally the idea was to go to the swimming pool to photograph portraits and the swimming pool would be the backdrop. She got home and she realized that a couple of the photographs were actually more of the pool itself rather than that you know the person. They were a bit of a departure from what she planned and I think that's a fantastic lesson that all of us as photographers irrespective of whether or not we're a household at master which Maria is you need to listen to the environment being tuned with with what the the place that you're photographing is the signals that it's sending out to you. I think I've talked about this in the past these kind of signals that are there you know and these great photographs are like hiding away from you and I'll link to this that video at the end of this in case you haven't seen it. Maria talks about this melancholy that for me I find that an easy leap to make because I have by my own nature quite a melancholy approach I am as people who know me in real life will tell you I am I'm like the post child for nostalgia I have this kind of weird ability to remember things from the past and I look at these photographs and they make me feel that idea of nostalgia melancholy even though I have nothing to do with it I have never experienced this environment or anything like that there is something about these photographs that I love that I'm going to try and put my finger on with you today in a hopes that when you look at photographs that you also enjoy that you can go ah okay I get a deeper appreciation for why you might enjoy that and then possibly bring that into your own photography. On Saturday mornings I put out a newsletter to the photographic eye community and if you'd like to get your own copy then click on the link in the comment section below and those newsletters are all about you know making us think making us feel inspired about our photography of sharing sometimes ideas like we've been talking with Maria and her swimming pool of going a little bit deeper into the art of photography and getting I think a better understanding of appreciation of the things that really set our photographs apart I'd love to be able to include you on the next mailing so if you are interested yeah click on the link in the comment section below. These photographs they've got that Eastern European kind of very odd sort of vibe to them and in a modern sense I would probably say that's something like Wes Anderson so a movie like the Grand Budapest Hotel that has that kind of Eastern fringes of Europe getting into sort of Asia sort of approach to it now that's what I get from this it I think that sort of comes because I used to read a lot of Tintin or Tonton when I was younger and in some of those books they go off to Albania or your places like that and and that kind of has this sort of feel so so I think from an essay point of view that's why it appeals to me but there is this this very formal approach to her photography is just so there you know these are quite clearly contrived images and by that I mean you know she's told somebody to stand there and do this and do that these are these are not spur of the moment this is not documentary Cartier-Bresson kind of sort of things this is the result of somebody really thinking about all the parts all the elements in the photography and then going I think a little bit further because it would be simple wouldn't it he says right for her to go oh do you know what I'm just going to do like a rule of thirds or everything must just be exactly so in terms of composition and the photography is not exact it's it's symmetrical but not quite and often you know when I've been talking to people about their photography and stuff like that I've kind of gone oh that looks like it might be a mistake or something like that and I'm going to backtrack on that ever so slightly and put that in context I feel that when you see an individual image and it's not quite center or it's not quite this one then it looks like a mistake but when you look at somebody's body of work and this this is why you know books and looking at somebody like Maria you know in in in print form is so helpful because you actually get to see their their whole body of work I first came across her photography as as one image and I went oh I really like that but there's only one photograph you need to see all these things in context so while something like you know the Hasbrook Masters competition which I talked about recently is fantastic for discovering you know photographers works and and obviously you know there are other there are other competitions around but you know I'd looked at the Hasbrook that one and I go do you know I really like a lot of what's there probably because a lot of the stuff is presented in the square format and things of that nature but I look at it and and those are great but they're just individual photographs I want to find out more and so sometimes you know you need to go exploring but that's a whole different conversation so we've got you know Maria's aesthetic and the feel that she has you know the buildings themselves are giving the aesthetic we've also got the color choices the simplicity of the outfits all the people are just wearing I would probably say looking at this quite old fashioned clothing certainly the bathing caps that some of the girls are wearing you know got a little flower doodad thing so it kind of it has this sort of future-ish but then also retro kind of vibe about it which again takes it out of out of place out of time so that's the aesthetic and that's fairly easy to to look at but then you have something that's a bit more difficult and this is where I think you know we get into the question of the voice in photography like what is what is a photographer's voice and it's not that aesthetic it's these these concepts that Maria talked about of you know of nostalgia and melancholy you can't put that on your photograph as a filter there isn't a nostalgia filter there isn't you know a melancholy slider in library that has to come from you as the photographer and I was talking with a guy who I'm mentoring the other day just about this very topic of finding a voice and and misinterpreting the idea in photography that you only can like photographers who align with your voice my voice is very quiet very you know download so that's when you look at my my portrait photography I have tried I love Ned of candor's work I dig it right it's so cool the lights and the fancy things and all this is where that I find I can look at it all day long I find it intriguing amazing when I've tried to photograph like that thinking oh that's my voice because I like that work it felt like it was a it was it was not right it wasn't me didn't flow naturally everything was difficult everything it was was troublesome just as much as if I were to try and take photographs like Maria's I would probably find it very I love them and I would wish to be able to take photographs like this but they wouldn't be me because that's not my approach but when you look at you know my what is my approach my street scenes of the pictures of building stuff they're devoid of people they're quite hard they're quite standoffish the same maybe with my portrait photography then I feel more comfortable when it's in an environment that is set up to be a little bit more classical in terms of of its approach of of simple things not great big expressions from photography like oh you know these sort of things right it's more just connect with the person give me character give me personality that's I think the difference between a aesthetic you know the swimming pool and the hats and the lights and everything of Natalie's work and Maria's and what have you and then your own voice think about the photography that you enjoy picture it in your mind's eye okay who are these guys that I like which are the ones that I could see myself trying to photograph like and and think about what is it that's common in there for me it might be there's actually I would say lack of overblown emotion right certainly in the terms of the portrait photography in terms of the scenic streets or the urban or landscape stuff I like people like you know Michael Kenner lots of that slow shadow speed stuff you know there's awfully long exposures places that have a quietness to them you might be something completely different they might be like yeah yeah bang bang bang because that's your type of person but I'm looking at you know Maria's work and and I've never heard her speak I don't you know I've never met her I think you know it would be fascinating to talk to her somewhere if you watch this reach out I mean maybe I should just reach out to you right and I I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I if I met her and spoke with her that I could see the connection I could say you look like the sort of person who would take these photographs or you feel you give me the vibe that these are your photographs they come from your head they're this in your soul it's the same as like when I meet when I talk with a bureau outside I talk to him and I see him in his photographs in this case quite literally he writes him his personality is shot through in these photographs that I think is is how if you want to know about a key about you making your work stand out to doing well in competitions like the house of black masters then it's about what is your personality as a photographer and how do you make that happen who are photographers that you think you know sort of capture your personality let us know in the comments below it's always nice to share you know ideas about new photographers and what have you and if you're looking to discover you know photographers who you may not have heard of then check out this video over here he says I'm leaving out the way of the video thank you ever so much for watching and I will see you again soon