Gennady Kalashnik: The main thing to make a person beautiful! A well-known photo artist told about the secrets of his success and about further creative plans.

-Gennady, and how long have you started to practice photography?

" Um, I will not say for sure, but about 13 years old, and thanks to my father's camera, I liked to just take it in my hands and look at the film. Paradoxically, now a person can go out and buy himself any photo equipment, and before that there was not even a study to be had. When I grew up, there were photo circles, and I did not hesitate to enroll myself there, I liked it so much that I had to drop out of school, because the camera was always with me, it was often taken away at lessons and I was repeatedly summoned to the director. (Laughs)

But I was very fortunate, because the leader of the circle noticed the potential in me and began to devote a lot of his personal time in order to develop my talent.

-And what did you initially attract in your profession?

- A certain personal vision of the frame. I always wondered what a real person or landscape would look like on film. Quite frankly, I can not describe the emotions that embraced me the day I first showed the film, it's a mixture of delight and surprise, an indescribable moment.

- Did one of your relatives already take up photography, or are you the only one of its kind?

- No, I'm the only one, a nugget. (Laughs)

And if they told me in 16 years that I would become a professional photographer after a certain number of years, I would laugh at them in person, because initially I could not even think that my childhood enthusiasm would become the meaning of my whole life.

Initially, I entered the VGIK for an operator, I studied in the workshop of S. A. Gerasimov. And, frankly speaking, everyone was happy, but after the end of the first year, we, students, were sent to practice at the BAM, which I personally could not help but like, as an ardent adventurer, decided to stay there to earn money, well In the end was expelled. After, I remembered my hobby and went to the photojournalism courses at the journalists' house on Arbat, I finished them quite successfully. Then he worked in Star City. In 1979 I joined the Union of Journalists of the USSR, since 2010 I am a member of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia.

- Many creative people need inspiration for their work. What can you say about yourself?

- Personally, I never leave inspiration, there just are times when you do not want anything, it seems that it has already been filmed or filmed something similar, but when you see something really worthwhile, you just want to work.

Do you remember your first shooting? What was it like?

- The first experiments, so to speak, I spent on my classmates. In addition, he was very fond of taking pictures of landscapes and could climb the waist all the day in the water for the sake of a good frame. But, if we talk about something more serious, then my first personal exhibition took place in 1975, mainly its components were portraits. These were portraits of completely different people (astronauts, labor people, celebrities).

- In recent years, most of the time you spend working with celebrities. Have there been any incidents during the shooting?

- Oh, this is certainly a question on the forehead, but, indeed, the incidents happen with almost every second star of our show business. After all, famous people are mostly very capricious. I can give a few examples, if you are really interested. (Smiling.)

-Yes, of course, it's interesting. Tell me, please.

For example, a very famous singer once unnerved me all the shooting, completely ignoring all my requests for a change of posture, explaining this behavior by the fact that he knows best from what angle and in what poses he needs to be photographed. Another, during the shooting, he could start singing some part from the opera, thereby scouring and mixing all those present in the studio. And one celebrity struck me to the depths of my soul with my attitude to shooting and to me in general. Not finding a place to park her car, she found it necessary to take and leave.

Of course, it's hard to work with them, but no matter how they behave in the beginning, in the process of shooting they begin to understand and trust the photographer, realizing that he is still a professional here.

- Tell us about your future creative plans?

- Now most of my time is devoted to the preparation of another personal exhibition called "Dear Names". In addition, the plans also release the self-titled personal photo album: psycho portraits of famous people of our country.

-And finally, what advice would you give to the beginning photographers?

- As they say: photo artists are not born, but they become. And while the guys are at the stage of amateur photographers, I can advise them how to work more on themselves, to shoot more around and learn to see the beautiful.