Gennadiy Chernomashintsev was born in the USSR in 1968, and took his first photos with a camera he calls “a Russian clone of a Leica,” an FED. His father bought him the camera and he says, “it was magic.”
Over the years his passion for imagery grew, he moved to Ukraine, and developed a deep love of high fashion, high contrast black and white photography. Each of his images—which includes everything from fine art nudes to high fashion headshots—harkens back to those early days of photography… not a drop of color to be found, plenty of grain, and a style that’s immediately recognizable.
“I simply dislike color. And I think that black and white photography is something timeless,” he told us over email. “Just take look at photos of the 50s-60s. Technology changes all the time, but these images are eternal and still evoke the same feelings.”
Not that Gennadiy has stayed away from all things modern. His love for black-and-white, film grain, and simplicity has inspired him to stay away from crazy lighting setups or sets full of assistants, but it didn’t keep him from moving to digital.
Now working as an art director for the Ukranian magazine DOMINO and as freelance fashion photographer, he recently switched to digital.
Still, he says he’s done his best to maintain both the spirit AND aesthetic of shooting on film:
Even working digitally I don’t spend plenty of time doing post-processing. I’m trying to stay close to analog process, don’t look at the camera screen, do the same amount of frames as it was on film and I also wait for a couple of days before starting post-processing… I don’t use lighting setups and prefer available light.
As for inspiration, Gennadiy did share some advice for new photographers when we spoke with him.
“You must know the history of photography and get inspired by great photographers,” he told us. “AMost important is to just to be yourself. You must be a person first of all. Read good books, watch good movies, and listen to good music.”
The one thing he didn’t mention? Scroll down and check out HIS work… that ought to help with the inspiration too.
To see more of Gennadiy’s work, follow him on 500px or check out his website.
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