Anya is internationally published and award winning photo artist from Ukraine now based in New York, USA. As a self-taught artist, she gained all her knowledge and inspiration through social media and online photography communities.
She creates fine art surrealistic female portraits, which became her preferable genre and a hallmark of her work. Installations, costumes, and Photoshop manipulation help her to embody her fantasies into a finished piece of art.
She has been featured on many popular online blogs, like BoredPanda, Petapixel, and My Modern Met.
Teaching conceptual photography is also her passion and as a workshop instructor, she has already taught in different countries all around the world.
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Get in touch with Anya
- Website: https://anya-anti.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anya_anti_art/
- 500px: https://500px.com/anyaanti
Key Takeaways
“You can learn all the technical stuff … what matters is what is inside of you, so do what you love, and believe in yourself!”
- Anya is self-taught because when she was starting there was nothing out there. She researched everything by herself – blogs, forums, tutorials. Right now it’s so much information out there on the internet. She used to analyze photographs and what she likes about them
- Conceptual photography is a complex process. Anya always starts with an idea – prepare, try to find a model, outfit, scout locations, build props, rent props or buy props.
- Anya does a lot of practical stuff on the set so she doesn’t have to involve Photoshop that much
- Anya compares her art to movies, where CGI makes it look real and she also makes her artworks look as real as possible
- Anya always tries to tell stories in her shots. The one shot has to tell the whole story. There are no captions to her photographs. She wants the people to think of the story themselves.
- Anya says“Life is short and you gotta do everything you can right now!” Time flies and you have to do most out of it
- Her fav quote is from Ansel Adams – “You don’t shoot a photograph, you make it!”
Resources mentioned
- Sign up for Anya’s workshops
- Tool of the trade – Nikon D600
- Fav photographers:
- Rodney Smith – fashion, fine art photography – surrealistic portraits
- Tim Walker – fashion photographer
- Contests in which Anya participated to get exposure and money rewards
- Blogs where your work can get featured
- BoredPanda
- Petapixel
- US – Fstoppers
Special thanks to Anya for joining me today. See you next time!
All artworks by Anya Anti, used with permission
Episode Transcript
Announcer
Creative, artistic, happy! That’s you. There are endless possibilities for living a creative life. So let’s inspire each other. Art Side of Life interviews with Iva.
Iva Mikles
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the next episode of Art Side of Life where I chat with inspiring artists five days a week. My name is Iva, and my guest today is Anna Anti, and we chat about the art and craft of conceptual photographic.
Anya Anti
I always compare my art to the movies. So when you watch a movie with a CGI and special effects, I mean, you know, it’s not real, but you believe it and you want to believe it. And if it looks real, that it looks good, and that’s what I always tried to do on my photographs. I tried to do it as real as possible. I know
Iva Mikles
internationally published and award winning photo artists from Ukraine. now based in New York, USA, is a self taught artist she gained over knowledge and inspiration through social media and online photographic communities. She creates Fine Arts realistic female portrait, which became her preferable genre and hallmark of her work. installations, costumes and photo manipulation helps her to embody her fantasies into finished piece of art. She has been featured on many popular online blogs like poor panda petapixel, and many others. Teaching conceptual photograph is also her patient. And as a workshop instructor, she has already thought in different countries all around the world. So please welcome Anya aunty, and let’s get to the interview. Welcome everyone to the next episode of Art Side of Life. And I’m super happy to have Anna here. Hi, welcome.
Anya Anti
Hi, thanks for having me. I’m so glad to do this.
Iva Mikles
My pleasure. So let’s start at the beginning. And I would like to know what was your creative outlet as a child?
Anya Anti
Well, as a child, I’ve been always a creative person. I’ve been like the best in paintings drawing. I’ve been doodling all around and like, join all the time. Yes, I and I think that helped me a lot in terms of understanding the composition and color better. Because I’ve already had this like, to be honest, I’ve never went to any art school. Except for I went to this kind of Ukrainian national painting style, which is the name especially Kafka. I went to that when I was in, like in. Like, when I just started to go to school, I went to those like glasses for a couple of years. And that’s pretty much it. Like, they didn’t teach me like color or composition. We just were doing this National Style Ukrainian paintings and that’s it. Yeah, but I’ve been always a creative child. I’ve been like, I used to draw like comic books, and different stories and just paintings and trying to copy some of the photographs when I was like, a little bit older. Yeah, a different set of stuff. I used to write poems, actually. Oh, yeah. But it was a long time ago. But yeah, and that helped me a lot to I think to become the person that I am right now.
Iva Mikles
And when did you fall in love with fotografie what was the trigger me
Anya Anti
started in 2008 It’s really hard to tell what like what triggered me and what was the main cause but I guess I was just trying to find myself because at the time I didn’t really have any hobby. I was into music a little bit. I was into art like all my life, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to become a painter because I’ve never like I said I’ve never been to any art school before. And I wasn’t sure that I want to do this like my life thing. So I fell in love with photography it started to become more and more popular on the internet. People started to do like blogs blogs became very popular and people started to post beautiful images also digital cameras became more affordable so people started to buy those and yeah, it’s like became very popular and I just fell in love with it and I decided this this is my be my this might be this is my be my thing.
Iva Mikles
And it What was your first camera? Do you remember?
Anya Anti
Yes, of course my first camera I like I saved all my money that I had. It was Nikon D 60. Oh yeah, I
Iva Mikles
have what do I have? I have d nine So he’s like,
Anya Anti
Oh, yes, I missed that one too. Yeah, I had like a whole evolution of cameras. I had the 60. Then it was the 80, then D 90. And right now I’m shooting with the 600.
Iva Mikles
Oh, cool. Cool. Yeah. Because also, I saved up so much for the camera because I really wanted to have a good camera portrays and landscapes and it’s such a difference. It’s so cool. Yeah, exactly. And which are kind of your biggest decisions and turning points in order to follow your passion. You mentioned buying the first camera. But what else happened? Like during your like developing your art?
Anya Anti
Yes. So the first step was buying a camera and for the first year, so it was the beginning of 2009. And the first year, I wasn’t doing photographs match, I was just learning. And I wasn’t sure that, like I was just starting, and I was taking pictures, maybe like every three months. And I was taking pictures of everything around me like my cat, my friends. I was doing some cityscapes and landscapes. So I wasn’t sure I was just trying to find myself. And the next looks like turning point was when I met a friend of mine, she was also an amateur photographer. And she said, like, Okay, I shouldn’t like she was shooting more film, but she was interested in more digital work, and she liked my photos. And she says, Hey, let’s do a photo shoot together. I have this friend of mine. She’s like, she’s not a professional models, but she’s just a beautiful girl who likes to take pictures of herself. Let’s do a photo shoot. And I was like, Okay, I had, I was like, I never thought that I wanted to do portraits. And I wanted to depart at that time. And I said, okay, because I wanted to do do something, integrate something. Emma did this photo shoot together, and I loved it. And I decided, well, yeah, I guess I left portraits now. And that’s when I started to do portraits. And about a year and a half later, I started to do this, like fine art, conceptual female portraits, which I still do now. And it just became like my Hallmark, Nicole hook my work right now.
Iva Mikles
Oh, super cool. And so if you kind of consider like your mentor, or your biggest inspiration in this process was either your friend or this one event, or did you have also different mentors?
Anya Anti
Now I’m completely self taught. I never attended any photography school, because we didn’t even have them. I mean, right now, maybe we have them in Ukraine. But back then, which was like, how many, eight years ago, seven years ago, there was nothing, just people were just buying cameras and tried to do something. There’s sounds. And I didn’t have any friends, photographers. So I did everything by myself, I gained all the knowledge through like internet or social media wasn’t there yet. But blogs were very popular, like forums where people discussed the geography and like, share their work. Photography community started to grow online. So again, I’m gonna log on all over there. I read articles, some tutorials, because right now there’s so much information like you can just Google it, go to YouTube, dive into search, and like you can. Yeah, there’s everything. You can learn anything you want. But back then, there wasn’t that much information, especially internet was slow. And like it all just started people. Were just starting to share experience. So it was, I want to say hard, but it was like a long process of me to learn everything. And I experimented a lot. I tried to analyze photos that I loved, and I tried to understand what I love about them and how can I do the same? So yeah, I had some favorite photographers pick them. They’re not like popular there was just local photographers. And I usually like to like say names because I don’t want to offend anybody. But yeah, like my favorite photographers influenced me a lot. Right now I have a couple of them like my all time favorite photographers. If you if you’re interested I can ask you,
Iva Mikles
you can also share now it will be perfect because
Anya Anti
I have a lot of favorite photographers but some of them the one is Rodney Agnes with my like all time favorite photographer and if you heard about them, he is on yard. Unfortunately he passed away a couple months ago he was old. But he’s he was a New York based photographer. He was a fashion photographer but also he did fine art. Like if you check the work you can find like influence of his work. Get into my work. Yeah, he used to do this thoroughly stick kind of portraits. And the other one is Team worker, which is famous fashion photographer also like my one most favorite photographer.
Iva Mikles
Oh, perfect. And if you think about like your development and learning and everything, what would you say was like best advice you ever received? And also the worst advice? Or maybe also, what do you see that other people give to young creatives?
Anya Anti
Well, people used to say, like, do whatever you like, and just keep doing it. So like, don’t listen to anybody. If you love it, if you believe in yourself, just do what you believe in. And I think that’s the best advice and it applies to me even right now. And to any photographer. Just do what do you love and do what you believe in?
Iva Mikles
And then what about your creations and portrayed and the fantasy setting? What is your biggest inspiration? Or do you have also something strange which inspires you?
Anya Anti
Well, my biggest inspiration, there’s nothing in particular, but I always get inspired about any kind of visual art, like paintings, illustrations, movies, modern art, like installation, sculptures really helped me and I often do like, like a brainstorm, I go online and search for tons of pictures like a binder at Pinterest, or Instagram or whatever, any art communities and just scroll through tons of images and just look through. And sometimes this target is part I just get an idea of something. And I build it, and then I develop it in my own way. And sometimes if it doesn’t work out right away, but it also helps because like, you collect all this like you, you feed your brain and you collect all this visual experience. And then at some point, you will come up with something like you see something you see a location or you see a model which like pops, right here’s an idea I want to shoot it or you see some something like some proper in store and you got it you like you have it because you already have like a base inside of you a visual, like visual experience visual. Like, you know. Yeah, like, yeah, we can call it experience. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
Or like this visual library where you are. Exactly.
Anya Anti
Exactly. So do you sketch
Iva Mikles
your ideas as well if for example like this post interest me or this light setup, or I don’t know the flow of the February or something?
Anya Anti
Yeah, I usually Yes, I do sketches. Not all the time. But if I have this certain idea, I usually prepare a lot. So yes, I draw a sketch. I searched for references, try to find images like to visualize it as much as possible. I try to do location scouting, if I if I can, I always guess I always find the right model. Right location. Yes, I always try to do so everything is perfect.
Iva Mikles
So do you have like a favorite? I don’t know, inspiration. Like some people like roasted buildings, or I don’t know, like sunsets or some special color combination. You’re like
Anya Anti
well, I love conceptual photography. So I guess my main source of inspiration is installations and more than art right now. So I just like look for pictures to get inspired by other artists. Yeah,
Iva Mikles
and if someone would want to do what do you do now? What would you advise them to do like first either if there are some tutorials you like or some movies to watch? Or like other studies? Or maybe also what tools you as you mentioned here the the photographic What do you use now with the camera? And do you use like a Photoshop or some other tools?
Anya Anti
Yes, of course. Well, it’s, it’s, it’s a complex process. So I always start with an idea. I usually don’t shoot just like test shots, or I don’t usually don’t go out and just shoot like anything. But I always try to come up with something with some ideas. So comes first idea comes first. I think it’s very important if you want to do not just pretty pictures but something not deep, but something more interesting, I would say. Yeah, I would recommend always come up with idea. Don’t just go outside and shoot like prepare, just always prepare. Try to find Model, try to find an outfit go to location and like, look how it matches together. Try to match colors before you go to in post production because it’s going to be much easier, easier when you just shoot. Like if you prepare as much as possible on a set than relying only on Photoshop I am. Yeah, I actually just posted on my social media posts about that people always think that I Photoshop everything, but it’s not true. I do a lot of setups, I built props, or I rent props, or I buy props. So I mean, that’s because that’s why I became a photographer, not a painter, not an artist. Because I don’t draw things. I cannot. I mean, I can draw, but I’m not that good. In a realistic Yes, exactly. I can’t draw light correctly, I can draw shadows. That’s why I photograph and to create image is realistic as possible. So people would believe it, you have to do as much as possible on the set. I always compare my art to the movies. So when you watch a movie with CGI and special effects, I mean, you know, it’s not real, but you believe it, and you want to believe it. And if it looks real, that it looks good. And that’s what I always try to do on my photographs. I try to do it as real as possible. Even if people know it’s like Photoshop, probably. But it’s a fantasy and I want to be able to deliver it.
Iva Mikles
And how do you come up with the stories as well.
Anya Anti
Um, I always try to do one shot from from the photo shoot, I always tried to make it as self sufficient as possible. I don’t usually just curious because I want this one shot to tell the whole story. And people do like their imagination to work. And I don’t usually do descriptions to my photographs. I don’t always come up with like titles and captions. Because I want people to, to think themselves to Agile to like, come up with a story they want to come up like it doesn’t have to be necessarily my point of view. They can like apply their point of view. And yeah, this
Iva Mikles
is like this open ended kind of story or like open for interpretation. Yes,
Anya Anti
exactly. That’s why I don’t like descriptions. Because if I wanted to do descriptions, I will become a writer, right. But I’m not my medium is a photography. That’s why I want to tell a story with a photography now with some tags. So I tried to make it as like as rich with like ideas as possible. So it doesn’t need to come with with description with the caption.
Iva Mikles
Definitely. And how do you find the the props and costumes? Do you have like, favorite shops you go to? Or do you buy stuff online as well?
Anya Anti
It always It depends. It depends on the idea. Sometimes yes, I try to search something online, if I can buy it. If not, I go to some arts and crafts store and I buy things and I tried to make them themselves. Yeah, it depends.
Iva Mikles
And do you also do like makeup for the models? Or do you work with some other people?
Anya Anti
No, I don’t do makeup. I can do my only my my makeup. Sometimes I work with makeup artists? Yes. Sometimes they don’t? It really depends. Depends on the idea.
Iva Mikles
And so how does your normal day look like? Because he also mentioned that you have also different jobs. And this is not your full time. And so how much do How much time do you spend on your creations and fotografie? And so how does your normal day look like and how do you design maybe your week or a month with the planning of your art?
Anya Anti
Yeah, photography is not a full time job unfortunately right now, but yeah, but I’m in the same industry. I’m a freelance retoucher, some kind of in the same industry. Yeah, but still. Yeah, I tried to do photography that’s why I became a freelancer so I have more time to do my photography instead of having like a full day job, which takes like all your free time. So yeah, so I can do more photography and try to make it my full time job. But, um, in terms of my day, well, I’m a very lazy person, to be honest. I’m not a workaholic. I tried to enjoy my life and I just tried to do what I love. And I try to promote it as much as possible. So I Like To be honest, shooting doesn’t like it actually shooting actually creating, unfortunately takes maybe like 20% of your time. The rest is like marketing, promoting answering emails. I don’t know, trying to make money and all these things like doing taxes and all this stuff. Like applying to the contest everything it takes like a huge amount of your time.
Iva Mikles
So what would you maybe recommend for the starting artists? As you mentioned that promotion is a big part. So maybe what did you learn over time? So you mentioned now, entering contests? What else do you do for self? Yes,
Anya Anti
I try to enter contests. Social media helps a lot. So I tried to post everything everywhere possible, like Facebook, Instagram. What else? I tried to make interesting content. So some popular blogs would feature me. So right now I’m trying to work more my YouTube channel. And my couple of latest videos were popular and huge blogs, especially here in United States. They featured my work, and like it boosted my following, like a lot.
Iva Mikles
Perfect. And what about the the contest you mentioned? Can you give us some name of the contest you like? Maybe people can check out?
Anya Anti
There are a lot of contests actually. I try to apply as much as possible. Some of them are free. Some of them are paid to fly. Or there are a lot of them. There’s one just called fine art photography awards. I wanted two years ago in Fine Art category I want second place. Second place in final critical category. Actually. Yes, yes. What else? There’s MD awards really big or huge contest. There’s international photography awards, IPA, which is really huge as well. I tried to apply there every every year. So far, I’ve got only honorable mentions. I didn’t take any like price, please. And one of the biggest one that I won so far was the Broncolor contest. Two years ago, yes. bronchiolar is a Switzerland’s lightning equipment brand. They have this contest every year, in spring, somewhere in March, I’m not sure. And every year they pick up five finalists, and give them $24,000 sponsorship.
Iva Mikles
So you can actually create more art.
Anya Anti
Exactly, yes. And I was a lucky winner two years ago. And now I’m an investor of Broncolor Oh, perfect.
Iva Mikles
Congratulations. Thank you. And what about some blogs you mentioned, like to feature like, photographers, what are your favorite blogs, maybe.
Anya Anti
I’ve been featured on board panda twice, which is huge. After that I’ve got like this huge boost boost and following and better pixel is very popular and very, like they have huge audience in United States F stoppers as well, one of the most popular blogs. So yeah, those are like main main ones.
Iva Mikles
And so how do you do it normally? Do they contact you? Or do you also contact them?
Anya Anti
You can do either way you can if you have some good articles, some good material, you can contact them and I’m pretty sure they will be happy to feature that if they like it. But so far, they contacted me. So yes, they kind of me, like, can we feature your YouTube video or like your portfolio and I was like, Sure, of course.
Iva Mikles
Nice because sometimes, you know, younger artists or creators are a bit scared to contact like, you know, bigger brands or bigger blogs. And so like it can be
Anya Anti
I have this fear even now. I mean, I’m pretty like, not shy, but I’m like, a little bit modest person. So I’m like, I’m not I’m not 100% sure about my work. Some will always like, what if I contact them and they not. They do not respond. And sometimes that happens sometimes I contact like a photographer, particular photographer or some kind of, I don’t know, blog, whatever and they do not respond. It happens even to like people like me. I mean, I’m not a world famous photographer. But still, I can understand the fear of the beginner photographers, but it’s a part of, it’s a part of set true, you have to do that. And it doesn’t always, you doesn’t always get feedback. And that’s okay. You just have to understand that that’s okay. It’s just something you have to deal with. And this is something you have to do. You don’t you just don’t stop. Even if you contact someone, a they do not respond. You just don’t stop and go and continue doing that.
Iva Mikles
So what is your biggest motivation? You know, like, when you have down days? Or maybe, you know, like, if someone doesn’t respond, how do you continue?
Anya Anti
Yeah, of course, I have my downside. I mean, not downside, but like, my Sundays, when I think that I’m worse, less, and my work is not good. Yeah. Yeah, I have those times when I hate everything I do. And I just want to, like, stop doing it. But I think everybody has that. Like, even if you’re even if you’re super famous. And like, I think it’s part of that artistic nature, not to be 100% satisfied with your work, and I think is one of the motivation, motivational things you want to be better at, just want to be better. I think a little bit of competition works as well. If you see someone doing better than you, and you’d like you want to be the same. Like, you want to be on that level, you want to prove like you can do, like, even better. So that also helps. And for me, understanding that life is short, and you have to do everything you can right now. also motivates me a lot. Oh, good.
Iva Mikles
That’s really nice. Yeah, just to try to live every day. The best you can.
Anya Anti
Yes, yes. Because, yeah, like, I’m always almost 30 right now. And, like, I remember that I was 20 years old, like it was yesterday. So time goes by really fast. And you just have to, you know, live your life and do whatever you love and do as much as possible. Because in the end, it’s all you got to remember, like, not things that you buy, but things that you make.
Iva Mikles
And so is there something you wish you knew before you started your artistic career? Something like advice to give to young self?
Anya Anti
Um, I wish I started earlier. Um, what else? I don’t know, I just I wish all this process is taking me slow, really slow. I’m like I said, I’m lazy. And I procrastinate a lot. Like, I think like many people. So yeah, it’s really hard for me to time manage and to be productive. And like, yeah, and I wish I could be better than that. And I just wish I did everything quicker. And yeah, I think I could do better if I were more organized, you know.
Iva Mikles
So how do you think how long does it take to do one of your art pieces, you know, like, from the idea to getting the props and the shoot and maybe editing and kind of the whole thing?
Anya Anti
Oh, it really depends. Sometimes an idea takes me like a month to like, prepare to, like, think about it. Sometimes it takes like a couple of days. Yeah, I’ve got different stories, like one photo should. I contacted this girl, we decided to go outside of the city and did the photo shoot. And I had no idea what I wanted to shoot. But I already like, agreed to meet and go there. Like we only planned our time. So I didn’t want to cancel it because they can understand that people have their own lives. I don’t want like, you know, they already made plans. So like, the day before the photo shoot, I went to this arts and crafts store in New York really big one. And I just I had no idea. I just went there in hope that I will come up with something. And I actually did I saw this huge, like, not plastic, but like the soft thing for flower arrangements. I forgot.
Iva Mikles
I don’t know for me holder is
Anya Anti
like a foam like in the shape of a sphere. And then there were like, tons of different yarns for knitting. And I was like, I’m gonna make a yarn for the shirt. I’m gonna buy this form sphere. I’m gonna wrap it with yarn with The thread and I’m going to do the huge yarn ball. And we’re gonna go outside of the city. It wasn’t November, everything was yellow. And I’m gonna do this like, yellow leaves like meeting thing. And this is how I made my photo with a girl with the yellow meeting and yellow.
Iva Mikles
Oh, nice, nice.
Anya Anti
day we went and did, we did the photo shoot. But because we like it took us almost three hours to travel one way. So it took us all day to shoot. And then usually it takes me I don’t know, a day two post production, everything like to go through my photographs to pick one that I like the most like to call it correct. And then maybe like, two or three hours to do one image in Photoshop. Yeah, really nice.
Iva Mikles
And so can you share maybe some of your exciting projects now or something which will be coming up later on? What do you want to share?
Anya Anti
I usually don’t share my plans for the future. I don’t like it. I like to keep it not in secret. But I like to keep it quiet. Because if I wasn’t able to do that, some people might say she’s a failure. Like, you know, like people don’t finish or something. Yeah, yeah. If they don’t like, do that, people might say that I’m a failure. You know, like people that don’t like me, I’m pretty sure there are people that don’t like me. But yeah, if something goes wrong, I just like to keep it like, you know, not to jinx it. Yeah. Yeah, so I like to announce my work when it’s already done to like, boost it and to like, release it, you know. But right now I’m getting prepared for my Europe workshop tour in October. So this really like taking on my free time right now.
Iva Mikles
Did you see the workshop look like?
Anya Anti
Yeah, I’m going to do three workshops in October. So right now I’m preparing. I’m thinking about like ideas, were communicating and emailing with managers a lot. Funding Model for new locations. Yeah, but usually, it’s a two day workshop. The first day is a shooting day where we go to the location, everybody have a chance to do photographs, and I help people like to take pictures. And I prepared set, I find a model I come up with idea. We find costumes or take like props and things. And we just shoot. So I show people how I create my photos from the scratch to the finished artwork. I show people how to get inspired how to come up with an idea how I develop it, how I organize everything. And they have an opportunity to make some beautiful shots with model and idea. And the second day is post production day. So we go to studio or someplace we can sit with a laptop and projector and I show them. We go through all the images we took the day before. And I show them all the process of post production like power sucks photos, how I choose them how I do color, how I do all the editing. And I like, at least I do want a photo from the shoot the day before and I finish it to the complete Upwork. So people have a chance to see how I do my photographs, like I said from scratch to the finished finished artwork.
Iva Mikles
Oh, nice. And where can people sign up for your workshops? Is it through Instagram through your website? Or?
Anya Anti
Yes, there’s information on my website in our workshop. Part. And there are links to Facebook events Facebook group, they can sign up there. And there’s manager contact information like email, they can contact me or they can contact the manager because he’s in charge of like sign up people and all this like financial things. So yeah, but if they have questions they can like feel free to contact me. I will do my best to reply and give all the information you need.
Iva Mikles
Perfect, then we can put the shownotes link you know, so our audience can check it out. And if they’re interested in photography, they can you know, sign up for a workshop if they’re around the Yeah, it will be
Anya Anti
Yeah, photographers of any level. So welcome to Gone because people often ask me question like, again, or can I come like I’m not sure that I’m like experienced enough. Of course you can call him like get just gone get inspired. Like see how I do my things and maybe, maybe you won’t understand everything but at least I will try my best that you understand everything and you can get inspired and you can see that it’s not like there’s no magic actually. There’s no secrets like I just it’s just photography. There’s no like there’s no magic you cannot do you yeah, like everybody can do that.
Iva Mikles
Perfect. And so what are the most memorable projects you’ve worked on? Like you mentioned this autumn yarn. Project. What do you have other ones which are maybe your favorite?
Anya Anti
Well, I have a lot of funny stories actually. My favorite one. I know they’re all my favorites. It’s so hard to choose. But
Anya Anti
I can talk about the latest one that I did that become very popular and famous and the butterflies one, I don’t know if you saw the butterfly. Running, right? Yes, yeah, the butterflies in my stomach. I did this video on YouTube with a little bit behind the scenes and a time lapse of my editing. I spent almost four hours to edit this photograph. And I posted a time lapse. And people just love it. It went viral. They featured it everywhere. Yes, and it was so funny, because I wasn’t really sure that it’s going to be so popular. I had this idea for several months. And I wasn’t really sure how to make it happen, you know, because it’s it’s was supposed to be a composite. So I had this idea of me opening my skin and butterflies come out. So I needed a skeleton. So I was trying to find a skeleton to order it online. And then, yeah, it took me a while to figure out the best way to do that. So I can do like the the last work in Photoshop as possible. And I remember the day that I wanted to do this photo shoot, I was like, I was so lazy. I was I want to do it. I don’t know, I’m tired. I’m not sure that I wanted to do it all. And then I just forced myself. And I did it. I spelled no spend half of the night doing it shooting at night in my apartment here. Yeah, and yeah, my husband actually helps me he like he forces me just going do it. Come on, you’ll leave. He asked to do that.
Iva Mikles
So yeah, so at least you have someone in your area like okay, do this.
Anya Anti
Yeah, I’m, I’m thankful to that. And yeah, he like, Come on, just just do it. Like, don’t spend your time wasting it and was like, Okay, I’m gonna put some makeup. I’m gonna curl my hair. I don’t want to do that. But I’m gonna do that. And yes, and then I spent some time editing this photo. And then I posted it. Well, I got a lot of feedback on the photograph. And then I did this video, my husband helped me to do this. And I posted it on social media. It was like, Okay, I got some feedback, but it wasn’t like really crazy. And I got a little upset because I spent so much time making this and I was like, I hate everything. I’m a feeler, I’m worthless. Again, like I had a little bit of the Depression time. And then my husband posted it on Reddit, which is like a forum here yesterday. And then it got viral. And I was like, oh my god, I got so many messages. Like everybody posted at Bored Panda posted it, but at least posted it. And I’ve got so many emails and so many messages. I was like, oh my god, I spent like a week just replying to all the emails. Yeah, it was so funny.
Iva Mikles
And so on the Reddit you posted or he posted a picture or the process of me
Anya Anti
posted the video, like just like, not not on the blog, but just like a like a message board, you know? Oh, yeah. People saw it and started reposted it so yeah.
Iva Mikles
Oh, really nice. And so but let’s talk about the future. You said you don’t like to make plans but if you would imagine like a dream scenario in like 10 years, what would you be doing? Like you mentioned that you might be doing like photography full time. And so what is happening? Where are you and yeah, if you
Anya Anti
guess I really hope I’m gonna do photography full time. I really want to do my thing. I don’t want to do like any different genre photography. So I really hope I will be able to do like what I do, which is fine art conceptual. I’m really into teaching, which I used to be doing back in Ukraine, but right now I’m getting more experience to be more confident. You know, about my English about my like teaching skills, because it’s different because I used to do Teach people in Russian language which, like, you know, the difference. So I really hope I’m going to be doing my thing. Maybe teaching more like traveling the world. I love travel, I really hope I’m going to be traveling a lot. Yes, with my husband, like doing workshops or whatever.
Iva Mikles
So and if you imagine, like maybe in the far, far future, you know, in like 100 years, what would you like to be remembered for?
Anya Anti
My photography, like, the thing that I do know, I really hope that people will remember me for doing this, like, this is what I love. This is what I would love to do that for the rest of my life. And this is what I would love to be known for.
Iva Mikles
Perfect, then I’m super happy that you took time to join us here and share your experience. It was super nice. And
Anya Anti
yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me was super fun. Thanks a lot. I enjoyed it. Yes.
Iva Mikles
Thank you again. And before we say goodbye, maybe you can share last advice or key takeaway, and then we finish?
Anya Anti
Well, the biggest advice, like all the technical stuff, you can learn, it’s not important, don’t like your camera doesn’t matter, your lenses don’t matter. The thing is, matter that what’s inside of you, and just do what you love. Believe in yourself, believe in what you do. Because to be honest, my parents weren’t always supportive. Because, you know, they considered photography is not a real job. They wanted me to be like to get a real job. But I proved that it can be serious, and I’m good at it. So just don’t stop. Just do what you love. Don’t listen to anybody. Don’t do it for any other reason. Don’t do it for just money. Do it because you love it. And if you have passion, if you have love for it, you will succeed. And I remember you were asking about my favorite quote. And my favorite quote is, you don’t shoot for a photograph you make it by Ansel Adams. So just don’t, don’t just shoot just make your photography happen. And yes,
Iva Mikles
amazing. I love it. Thank you. So thanks again for being here. And thanks, everyone for joining and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Anya Anti
Thank you. Bye
Iva Mikles
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