Meet the 500px International Images Awards Tremendous Artwork Class Winner
The 2022 500px International Images Awards serves creatives working with pictures and gives them an opportunity to showcase their ability and be rewarded for it. The second version of the competitors consisted of six classes: Technical, Storytelling, Industrial Content material, Documentary, Tremendous Artwork, and Panorama. In the present day on the weblog we’re speaking with the winner of the Fine Art class, Elena Paraskeva, as she tells us extra concerning the picture.
Hello Elena, please introduce your self.
Imagine it or not, my masters was in finance, and my profession within the US was first as a Director of Analytics after which as a Advertising Govt for Nestle Waters.
I’m fully self-taught, by no means attended a single workshop, and fast-forward a decade later, my work is presently on exhibition on the European Parliament in Brussels.
I’m a devoted Adobe Teacher, educating 1000’s on my course of, and I’m a decide for a few of the world’s most esteemed pictures competitions together with for the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.
The successful picture: “Conserving the Distance”
What made you gravitate to this model of pictures—pushing the boundaries of illustration and creating work extra conceptual in nature?
I contemplate myself to be a fancy individual, and as such, I would like my interplay with the viewer to happen in a extra advanced, contextual house the place the which means and intention isn’t instantly obtainable to know. A extra concerned dialog of the minds must occur for the unraveling of the unique concept to be attained.
Are you able to inform us the way you deliberate and executed the shoot for the “Conserving the Distance” picture?
The actual picture is a part of an 8-image sequence that has been featured extensively in magazines around the globe. The challenge was truly created proper after our lockdowns ended. It was a surreal time if you concentrate on it, the concern, and the necessity to distance ourselves was so intense, all of us went by means of a never-before-seen stage of social deprivation. The challenge explores society’s awkward makes an attempt at re-integration, utilizing humor and colour.
There are such a lot of components inside this picture. Was it a problem working with so many components of colour, props, and fashions?
I’ve a course of once I create a sequence, and all of it begins with me writing down the storyline and the message. I then scout for areas and take photos of every body inside this location. As soon as I’ve honed in on the precise frames, I elaborate on the composition, writing down the poses, the props, the clothes, and, in fact, the precise lighting for use. All the things is predetermined method earlier than the day of the shoot, nothing is left to probability. In that sense, it’s simple on the day of the shoot, I do know precisely what I’m going for.
Do you’ve gotten a favourite picture in your 500px Profile and why?
I’m all the time extra emotionally related to a sequence fairly than particular person photographs, due to the intrinsic message behind them and the time funding. However If I had to decide on a picture or two, I’d say the “Cubist” (I & II) as a result of they’re so consultant of my conceptual model and sensibility.
All photographers have their most well-liked gear. What’s yours, and what instruments did you utilize to create “Keeping the Distance”?
I’m a Nikon photographer, so all my gear (digital camera and lenses) is Nikon. I don’t have a favourite lens to be sincere, as a result of I discover that every lens has its personal worth relying on the kind of shoot concerned. If I’m doing a positive artwork portrait, I exploit an extended lens, but when I’m doing a vogue shoot, I exploit a wide-angle one, and I truly love the distortion.
This explicit sequence was environmentally based mostly and all the weather within the body wanted to be in focus, so I used a wide-angle lens mounted on my tripod. Lighting was the identical for each picture within the sequence, as I prefer to have light-cohesiveness, and because it was a harsh and really vivid day, the objective was to make use of the solar as the primary supply, and the strobes because the secondary supply that removed the cruel shadows. For that reason, I used giant octaboxes for even protection.
Framing and taking the shot is just a sliver of what it takes to make a powerful picture. The opposite equally essential half is modifying, how did you utilize modifying instruments to raise your picture?
That is very true, modifying performs a big function in my work. For this explicit sequence, I used Photoshop to merge all of the completely different exposures I created for every scene since I used to be working with a single mannequin. I additionally performed with colour to ensure that the color-blocking I envisioned could be the identical for every picture. Shade grading for me is the final step of the method and it’s what separates a superb picture from a terrific picture!
When submitting your work to the awards, how did you choose out of your various portfolio and determine on the very best photographs? Curation generally is a wrestle for creatives so do you’ve gotten any recommendations on find out how to be selective and intentional in terms of submitting your work to competitions?
All of it comes right down to which competitors you’re submitting to. Analysis previous winners to see what the competitors gravitates in the direction of. Is it realism, rawness, documentary-style pictures, or very stylized, pop, colourful, or surreal imagery?
For instance, the Lensculture and Sony competitions require very completely different imagery from say the ICA, Chromatica Awards, IPA, FAPA and many others. The primary competitions love and respect extra documentary model pictures and present issue-based imagery, whereas the latter award the surprising and the extra technically based mostly.
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