Vladimir Byazrov

I went roller skating the other day, and fell. That was quite a bad one, because I was out for about 30 minutes. I’ve quit roller skating after that. I’m now a photographer who doesn’t do roller skating, but has a thing for hanging above the water during a photo session on a yacht.

Photography is what I’ve been doing all my life. I was still at grade four when they bought me my first camera, and there I was, taking pictures of everything I saw. I never dreamt of becoming a photographer, because I believed that becoming a photographer is somewhat the same as becoming Alla Pugacheva. So I became a lawyer.

Considering that I have quite a good opinion of goths and all sorts of other similar movements, I always try to take cheerful photos. It’s never happened to me that I’d feel like taking a picture of someone with a gun, or a knife, or a blood stain. I’m a cheerful person, and the pictures I take are a reflection of me. Down with depression.

Somehow, uploading a photo to my blog or my site of some star picking the nose or readjusting the elastic of their underpants just isn’t one of my ambitions.

Working with stars is more rewarding. Everything’s much more professional: I don’t have to come up with something outstanding to get a person to do something.

When on the shooting floor, I try to work closely with the person I’m shooting. And because I’m quite a large person, when it comes to me showing a girl what exactly I want from her… That’s quite an amusing view. A bold unshaven man running around the studio, bouncing…

I’ve been to every club, bar, and restaurant in Moscow.

The content of modern glossy fashion titles is targeted at an average 17-year-old blonde. And as for me, just like any other dull person (and I am a bit of a dull person), I enjoy reading analytic press, for example, the magazine called “Expert”, every issue of it being a reason for anticipation with every new week coming.

All I think about, all I talk about, all I do revolves around photography alone, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I do get round to family life every now and then, but my work is still there all the time, and a lot of people decide that they just can’t put up with it and flee from me.

I’ve come to realize that I’m a very fussy person. Every couple of days or so, we pick some place to go out to with my friends. And if I’m not happy with the choice, I might not even show up.

Before, people at their forties were almost on the verge of the old age. Whereas nowadays being 30-40 is almost the same as what being 20-25 used to be a couple of decades back. The most immediate example is Madonna: a woman at her 50 (that’s retirement age!) prances around the stage, tours the world, and rocks with a 20-year-old boy.

There’s a basic principle: be nice to everyone and make sure you treat them with respect, even those who might not seem to deserve it from the point of view of common morals. Nobody ever misbehaves around me. And if I am destined to witness someone getting too carried away one day, that would be a reason to restore some of the skills obtained at the karate and taekwondo lessons.