tasha photography : Nikon Girl

I meet Lisa first time when on my Facebook comment to her photo she kindly offers to take the dress from the photo shoot from her which looks just like the one worn by Julia Roberts in her famous Pretty Woman’s polo scene. We have a quick chat drinking lattes at the café next to where she lives – Perspective Building Condominium at Lambeth North. We talk about kids and jobs and at some point I ask about her workshops. She invites me to participate in one, and we pencil the date.

A few weeks later we meet at Starbucks café at Holland Park where the preparation for Alice in Wonderland workshop are well underway. We chat drinking another set of lattes and I watch the amazing transformation of a model with the help of Stella Astorya, MUA stylist who works with Lisa a lot.

‘I found some of your photos at Saatchi Online. Do you sell there?’

Good research! But no, she doesn’t. They asked for some photos and she emailed them some – it’s more for display, rather than for sale.

When she decided to become a photographer?

‘I have two degrees from the universities in Russia – one in law, another in economics, and when I moved to the UK, I entered University of Greenwich to get the qualification of web-designer. About five years ago I wanted to take some professional photos done and having paid for the session £500, I finally received a few raw images of quite poor quality. I thought I could do better.

What she loves most about her job?

It would be making people look at themselves in a way; they have never looked before and see how happy it makes them. The least favourite part is dealing with paperwork, marketing, bureaucracy. She uses social web-sites, like Facebook, 500PX, Twitter, Flickr, VKontakte, Youtube, as a great free-of-charge marketing tools. ‘I love my job, but it’s a business after all’.

She strongly believes that ‘there are no ugly people – there are bad photographers’. She admits, however, that there are “complicated” people with whom she has to work longer to find that right angle to showcase their advantages.

‘So what if their legs are the main advantage?’

‘Take more full height photos’ she laughs back.

She is incredibly optimistic and cheerful, and laughs a lot. But when I ask a serious question her face expression changes into the professional mode and she talks proudly about her first professional success when her photos were published in Russian Tattler.

As we chat, it becomes apparent that her character amazingly combines very opposite traits – creativity and cynics, shyness and ballsiness; she has got no fear to judge or to be judged. Being very open about her job, she is yet very protective about her personal life. Her little daughter has just turned five months. When does she find time for everything? Thanks to her husband’s support who babysit Malvina when she has to work.

As we discuss wedding photography she openly says ‘Photography is not my hobby; it’s my profession, my business’. You must have passion for photography to photograph wedding and make each and every one of those shoots special. But nowadays everyone seems to be a wedding photographer. ‘Well, as long as you have photographed your friends’ wedding’ her laugh makes me laugh.

Recently Russian wedding photographers become very popular and take the main prizes at major international completions. The stereotype of wedding photos “A monument and us” and “An eternal flame and us” is slowly disappearing. Both photographers and their clients are ready to experiment so the symbiosis is just great.

The British clientele is still quite conservative in what they expect from the wedding photos. And British photographers respond to this conservatism positively. It has to fit within the accepted standards and usually results in standard photos. ‘I am trying to teach my clients to have a bit more fun. I believe that the wedding photos shall have a plot, a story about a couple. I show them that if they want to have “as usual”, they’d get something like this, and if they are ready to try a bit, they can get something like that’.

Does she ever withhold any photos from the clients for any particular reason?

Yes, when her camera catches the evil glance of the related family member, for example, or some unpleasant moment. Once going through the photos taken at the wedding she discovered a 10-year old who was serving himself with wine at the reception. ‘It’s out of my remit; I’m not there to create unpleasant situations. I am there to picture the happiest moment of their live’.

Does she loose clients?

‘If my clients choose to go to another photographer, I don’t mind. In the end of the day, it’s all about my personal style, not about the prices, because as you can see the prices are very liberal’.

I note that I don’t see any copyright on her recent photos.

‘I don’t stamp them with any copyright anymore because I think that it makes photographs look ugly.’

‘Do you get photos stolen?’

‘I am not looking’, she says ‘but if someone steels my photos, I have become famous’

She loves the works of David LaChapelle, Daria Pushkareva, Katya Mukhina and Janna Malaya. But it’s an evolving process and there are more and more people ‘who kick her in the butt’ keeping her inspiration going.

I tell her that I read her interview to The Hush Magazine published a year ago when she said the next logical step for her would be holding her own workshops and seminars. Now a year later she has organised dozens of workshops, creating amazing opportunities for other photographers to express themselves artistically and enrich their portfolios.

‘I realise the ideas I’d love to do myself. I get inspirations from movies, books, music, video, and – don’t laugh – even commercials. I create these art photos for myself. When a girl comes for a professional photo shoot, she doesn’t want to perform as a mermaid stuck in the pond.’

Is it profitable? No, it’s not. If it’s not a loss, it’s good. And she knows some photographers who manage to sell the photos from the workshops. Do they reference her as the creator of the ideas for the photos? She used to ask people to provide references, but no one seemed to react. In the end of the day, they cheat their clients if presenting the concepts as their own which quire easy to uncover when the clients book such photo sessions.

She is strongly-opinionated, especially when she knows exactly what she wants to get. The tiny little details are thought through, from the exact location to the colour of the lipstick the model wears. I am totally blown away.

While Lisa asks the model to sit straight – “soviet style” – before they start experimenting, I chat with some of the workshop attendees. ‘She has got her own style, which you either get bored with, or you love. But you know that you get professional model, experienced MUA artist, and everything would be planned to perfection. From all I’ve been too, she is simply the best’, explains one of the guys.