fashion in 2017

fashion in 2017

   18.11       Fashion 2017

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(pulsing music) - hello and welcome tothe i3 lecture series hosted by the masters indigital photography program at the school of visual arts. we are thrilled to have yulia gorbachenko as tonight's guest speaker. originally from ukraine, yulia is a fashion and beauty photographer based in new york city.

we are particularly proudthat she's a graduate of our program at sva. in just a few short years she has built a really brilliant careerand that's inspiring. yulia's editorials grace thepages of magazines worldwide including internationaleditions of harper's bazaar, elle magazine, glamour, l'officiel, cosmopolitan, marie claire and instyle. her commercial clients include clinique,

maybelline, garnier, guess, l'oreal, make up for ever, ilmakiage and sally beauty. so please help mewelcome yulia gorbachenko to our lecture series. (audience clapping) - thank you so much for coming. i'm very excited to be here because i'm graduate from svadigital photography program. and it's been for me sixyears since i graduated.

it's been a long way till now but i'm very proud i wasa part of the program and i'm very proud that i'm speaking now, that i wouldn't imagineme being here speaking in front of the audience. i started to doing photography, let's see. i started doing photographyi would say eight years ago. initially i'm from ukraine, i did my year bachelors in marketing

and advertising and linguistics, and came to the usa because i wanted tostand out from the crowd, the other people who was doingmarketing and advertising. so i was thinking, okay,i'll come to the us, do my internship and thencome back to my own country, and i'll have some advantages over those who just stayed in the ukraine. i came to the us.

i was working in american company and suddenly i was given a camera, it was a canon rebel xs i think. and because i was so bored,i was living in maryland, i just started taking pictures. first i took pictures of everything, of the people, naturelike literally everything. and i just got fascinatedby the photography. i would never believe

anyone who would tellme that i would become a fashion or beauty photographer or just photographer, iwould think is a joke. because i never dreamtto be a photographer. and then i started training myself, reading a lot duringthe daytime, nighttime, editing just playing around. and i looked at otherphotographer's work that i admired. those photographers were notfashion photographers at all

and i thought that photographyis such a great profession. i wish i could be one. and then suddenly i thought i was, i was advancing i would say in photography and i thought that it'sreally taking me somewhere. so, one day i told my parents, i think i was 20, 21 or 20. i don't really remember. i want to become a photographer.

and i'm very thankful to them that they didn't say, "hey, are you crazy?" because i'm from ukraine, ithink back then in ukraine there wasn't a professionlike photographer. they encouraged me, say, "okay, if this is "what you really love to do, then do it." i think it took me ayear to enhance my book, polish my style a little bit as i thought i had a style back then.

and i figure out, okay, so photography. i love photography but whatkind of photography will i do? finally decided i want to dofashion and beauty photography. i applied, i built my book and i applied to sva, and luckily i was acceptedand i moved to new york. i think this is when my journeystarted with photography. and this is i think, thisimage is very symbolic to me because this is what mystyle looked like back then.

i found out that there is thiscontinuous light and flash and i was experimenting a lot. and i thought back then that this is my style and that's it. i'm doing continuous lightwith all these crazy colors and this is going to bemy signature forever. it took me, i don't know, maybe a year. i was doing this, some thingslike this for a year at least while i was at school.

and i loved it. i loved it but then after a year i think i got a little bit annoyedalready from all the movement. maybe i grew up a little bit too, so my character evolvedand changed over time. then this image i thinkwon competition at pdn and it was published, and one of their bigmakeup artist contacted me and said, her agent contactedme back then and said,

"hey yulia, will yoube interested in doing "a beauty shoot with our makeup artist?" i looked up her work and herwork was just unbelievable and i was thinking okay,why would this artist will want to shoot with me at all because she's there and i'm here? so i thought of course,i would love to do it. i came to the meeting and she asked me if i want to do beauty with her.

so of course, i just jumpedon the boat opportunity and we did a few shoots together. i think this image broughtme to the beauty photography because before i was doing mostly fashion. i started doing beauty with her and we were doing lots of good stuff. this was done in the earlybeginning of my beauty career and this image, and thesethree images were just the beginning of my beauty journey.

and then i realized when istarted doing beauty photography i realized that i'm so good in beauty because in fashion to dogood fashion photography, it takes so much, notonly the said design, it involves also good clothes. i didn't have anyconnections to any magazines so it was me, makeup artist. we'll get a model, a makeupartist, a hairstylist but i didn't have a strong book.

i couldn't get a pullletter for the magazine. so i decided, okay, i better if i can't use high end clothing so let me do just beauty shots which will be on a good high level instead of doing fashionshots that are just okay. maybe my beauty workwill just bring me up. this is basically what we did all the time for another given a year.

i don't remember exactlyhow much time it took me but i was getting good models, not as big as i canget now but good models and concentrating on tight beauty stories, beauty shots even notbeauty stories i would say. and then i thought thatmy work progressed a lot so it was makeup-oriented. i was experimenting with makeup. then i got to clean beauty

which was just taking beautiful girls and getting clean stuff. it's not something crazy but i think that in simplicity because i couldn't get any clothing simplicity, i could get with my work higher. only when i started doingsome simple things like this and then with cosmetics as well, i was able to get better girls,

work with a better makeupartist and a better hairstylist, and people started to reach out to me that they want to work with me. i thought that with my beauty works, i step up few steps above my fashion work and i loved it. i think i was... i'm a person who's really detail-oriented, like little details, i careabout nails, about manicure,

about just little wrinkles. i don't know, like littleperfections or imperfections. my eyes see it more and i think over time youjust get trained so much because you look so muchinto all these details. this is a start of my beauty journey just simple, beautiful images with a simple light and beautiful girls. and i'm obsessed with hands as well

so my rule about the hands,if they're good hands i would use them for sure. and then also the macro shots. i was doing along with the simple beauty macro photographyas well which i liked. so my work evolved. then i'll talk about my creative process, how i got to this. what do i usually do in my everyday life.

i follow industry news. i think instagram is so fantastic and just all these fashion blogs, so cool because you can go online and everyday you have so manyeditorials that are coming out and you can see who is doing what. and just get inspired, seewhat other people are doing. and just the more you look,the more you train your eyes. i follow other photographers,good photographers

but let's not try to copy them because inspiration is one thing and i admire many photographers but i never copy because ineed to develop my own style. everyday when i look through like blogs or like industry news, igather my inspirations. i have this folder in my computer which is called inspirations. i have, i don't know howmany folders i have there.

50, 70, i don't know. every time i see animage for example of red like a beautiful outfit, red lips or interesting red eyes on the girl, i pull out this image andput in a folder called red. if there is a wet image, whenher, model's face is shiny and she's all wet, done in interesting way i'll pull it out put inthe folder called wet. then coming back when i need to pull,

to get a mood board for the story that is full of reds or wet, i just go to the folder and i have already like 50 images there that i can just pull instead of just sitting there and going through all photographer's work, and getting ideas together. i think it's also very helpful to pull those inspirations everyday

or not everyday, just once a week. once you see something itjust doesn't take you time just to get your ideas into the folders. this is what i do everyday, see it. or now with instagram onthe phone i do print screens and then go on them on my laptop and find where was it from so i can drag it to myhere, laptop and save. because then over time you forget

but if you have it, you will never forget. you'll go back for it over time, then i brainstorm ideas consistently because as it says, don't wait for someone to reachout to you, do it yourself. when i for example a folder ofthis wet images of the girls and i think okay, thisis and then over time, the idea develops in my headhow i would like to do it. i get these mood boards together

and i reach out to themagazines with an idea, so i can send them three mood boards, i can send them five mood boards, i can send them sevenmood boards or even two. depends on where my mind is but those ideas should bereally formed in your head what exactly you would liketo send out in your own style. it's very difficult toput what you have in mind into the mood board

but you have to try to do your best just to translate yourideas into mood board. and when you said mood board it's not that you try to copy it but the editor, they need to see what story they will have in the end. then i'm very open to criticism, it can be helpful but alsoi've received quite a lot of critics from friends and colleagues

and just people i know. but also you need to understand that you need to stick to your values, what you think is best for you. for example, i'm beauty photographer and many people were pushingme to shoot for fashion and i'm telling them i love fashion but i'm not going, even ifit's for good magazine now, i'm not going to doit, i'm not feeling it.

it's not the thing that i'm obsessed with, that i'm willing to do right now. i'm just loving something else, something tighter, some little details. maybe it will change over time, maybe it will change in months or maybe it will change in five years. i don't know but i don'tcreate something that i'm not obsessed with.

i know my strengths, i knowthat beauty is my thing so i'm very confident with that, so i don't go anywhere else at the moment. i just polish, polish, polish my style. as i said, set yourselfprojects to build your book and polish your own style. in before the images thatyou've seen in clean images or the images with makeup, nobody came to me and said,

"hey yulia, would you like to do it?" i set up the shoot, i brainstorm ideas, we got with a team together. we did the shoot, we did the retouching and only then i started tosubmit it to the magazines. and that's when i got published, started publishing in marieclaire or elle magazines or harper's bazaar. they were in the full stories.

first, there were somepictures here and there and then only then i wasable to submit the stories. but this is how i startedby submitting the stories that i already have. and then when i had and those images were without the styling. they were just simple images but at least at my book i had already some consistent series.

then experiment. all my, i can't say career, all my photography lighti try to experiment with my style, with my lighting, with models, with angles. so just don't be afraid andpush yourself to the limits because in the end it's you and your work and it needs to standout, itneeds to speak for itself. after i got the series of images

that i could present to the magazine, i started sending the mood boards and i started shootingthese series of images which i think is veryimportant to understand when you have a clear concept in mind how to do the series that are cohesive and that read together. and i tried to come up for example, this series were shot for harper's bazaar,

for harper's bazaar. and when i think of this series, for example, this is herethe example of the series that are shot on the neutral background, more for portraiture style. sometimes i like to zoom in, zoom out, play with different crops. but sometimes when i havesome concept i really like when they say like in a portraiture style.

here this is more for like geometric and like sleek hair, geometric and i stayed for example here cohesive and consistent with the hands. once i saw that the model'shands are fantastic, she's so good at having her hands, and i started to, the thing about the shootis think it's the hands, how weirdly she can place them.

i think they add so much. i think when i havethree images with hands or four that will be very strange not to have the fifthimage without the hands. the lesson here if youstarted doing the hands and it reads well with the story, you just have to kind of continue with it, and allow how the crops,it's pretty much the same more for portraiture style here as well.

neutral background, i justdidn't see in this series adding different backgroundor zooming in, zooming out. i love how images look the same in terms of proportions. for example, in this one i thought okay, having portraits all the time is boring, sometimes it's cool tozoom in and zoom out. for example, these were some close ups. sometimes i love to zoomout just to have them,

to have some interest andzoom in again into the image. same here, like three images are close up and then zoom out just for the interest so the viewer can, so the page can read moreinteresting in the magazines. but sometimes it works,sometimes it doesn't. you just need to think overall these details before. when i get my mood boardtogether then i think of okay, when i go to the set i know exactly

what light i'll be using. and i know if i'm goingto do all the close ups so i want to zoom out. this is also very importantfor the stylist to know how you're going to shoot it because maybe this dress won't look good if i cropped it in. it would look too simple. or maybe if i zoom out on that dress

it won't be as interesting as well. the stylist you have to getsome idea to the stylist what are you doing. and then after that also now i tried, i'm trying to push myselfto shoot more on location because beauty is so studio and i love studio but when i started out i think i would shoot in a lot on location because i didn't haveso many lights with me

and i just loved all these, what unexpected momentsthe location will bring. but then i locked myself in the studio, was doing quite a lot there. i was thinking, okay, that's it, let's and it were some, all thestories were shot in fall, in the beginning of the fall. i was thinking okay, that's it. i need to use locationsas much as possible.

this one was shot on location. we just came out and thisone was shot also in location even though sometimes it's, you can't tell if this is location or not because it's so close this image but these all was in a couchin one of the location. and that's so funny becausethis one it was the last shot when the sun was going out. so okay, i need to get onemore shot just in case.

we went out, i put thelight against the sky so this image i shot in one, i think it took me twominutes just to get that shot. it was just so perfect andi like how the background fits in into the story. it's the same theme which is the lace but the backgrounds aredifferent which adds the elements and i like it a lot nowto just mix and match. for example, in fashion wheni see fashion photographers

doing studio work and combining it with the fashion outside, i really, really like that. but for beauty, i don'thave usually so many pages, i have like five to six pages and it's not the 15-page story. sometimes it's tricky to combine both but for some stories it worked just to experiment with backgrounds.

then let's talk about lighting, how i started with my lighting. first, i didn't have any lights. i was using outside for my shoots a lot and then i got myself two lights which i was taking everywhere i went. it was a beauty dish and one will light i don't know, for lean and just in case, i wouldsay one or two lights.

i think that it's veryimportant to understand those two lights first, and do your best with those two lights because once you knowhow to use two lights, it will be so easy to addone more and one more. but i think with two lightsi've shot for few years because this is all i had. i was traveling with thosefew lights on subway, just everywhere i went.

and i think it played a really big role that now i know those two lights and i can add now and iknow exactly what i'm doing. i also have a folder in my inspirations which is the lighting references. there are like projections. when i see some fashion,beauty images with projections which i will do soon i think, so i put them there orif there is a picolite

which i love as well using. i would put those inspirations with the interesting lighting to the folder. when i'm shooting some story, sometimes i would go tothem lighting references even though sometimes iknow already what i want, but i would go still tothe lighting references and look through like hundred images which has different interesting lighting

just to see, just to seeif there is something i could add to the shoot. i would gather a lotof lighting references that are available in the internet. then watching tutorialsand behind the scenes, i think internet is so fantastic now because all these photographers, huge photographers are posingbehind the scenes videos of what they are doing,

and sometimes it's just one light or sometimes it's just two lights. and even though the imageslook just fantastic. just watch what other people are doing just to have an idea, educate yourself. i still do, i still go into the internet and watch those tutorials,behind the scenes. it's very helpfulespecially the photographers are so open with sharing.

in almost every shoot myself, i have behind the scenes photographer who shoots behind thescenes images for myself and then i post them. so you could see what i'm doingand i'm very open to share because there are nohidden secrets in lighting. it's just a tool to translate your vision. and i think that one of, i think it's the best advice i think

that i can give to anyonewho wants to do photography. and i think it worked for me very well, it's just practice. just shoot a lot. i think, well, looking backeven like two years ago i wasn't as good as i'm now or four years ago i'm not, iwasn't as good as two years because i just thinkpracticing consistently just you polish your style so much.

you train yourself, youthink with the practice, your style is polished. not just sit and look in imageor like this or like that, just with real life situations. you learn from the people, youlearn from situations on set of what can happen. i think practice is the best advice if you want to get better. the more you shoot, the better you become.

besides of course, the talent but for me like practicingand shooting so much helped tremendously. okay. with the lighting, what do we have? these images for example wereshot with just one light. i just want to show you that what kind of stuffyou can do with one light and most of my work is justone, two, three lights.

it's not a lot eventhough i can have more out but this is just one light, this is like one lightagainst the sunset, micro, just simple portrait. it's very easy. and in these ones i wasusing the para from broncolor which is my go-to toolfor this kind of shots. this is two lights. also looks a littlelike gels and (mumbles)

but it's just two light. you move them around,you see how they look, if you put them in front it's softer. on top it's hotter and just move, i just move it around and see what works best for the shot. and this is i think my go-tolighting is three lights. they're all the same,pretty much similar set up. what's the difference now thati put two lights on the back

to control the intensityof the background. this is on the harder, this is the less light onthe back in the middle. it's the same pretty much setup, just different intensityon the background. now i really love to control it, before i was playing with the background by placing the beautydish how it will fall. if you're closer to thebackground so it will be lighter,

if you're further away so its darker. now since i have the lights, it's so much easier to control it and that's what i door just in no lighting, these images were shot with no lighting, just reflectors and nothing else. very, very easy. no lighting at all. once i think, when i just,

i didn't even move to new york back then. i wanted to assist one ofthe fashion photographers and i showed up to himwith my electronic book, with my book and showed him, there was one model, ican't even say it's a model. okay, it's one model andshe's in 10 different poses same everything, same outfit, kind of different expression. and he looked at my book,i tried to get internship.

he thought, "yulia, i'llgive you one advice. "just get better models. "you're good in photographybut get better models." for me, i thought okay, i understood him and i took that advice seriously but it's very hard to getgood girls in the beginning because you don't have your book. nobody knows you. with time, i think i took thegirls that were good looking,

they were not top girls and i tried to get the best of them. for example, if theirchin was heavy for example i would shoot really tight but my main result, my main goal was to, for them to look beautiful in my book. and over time i think just getting, getting better, better girls because no matter how good i am,

makeup artist, hairstylist,the whole team, if you don't have a good model, you don't have a strong shoot. but to get to those girls, you need to, well, i had to. i don't know, maybesomeone has bad examples when they were able to jumpinto good girls faster, but for me it was just along growth of building up and getting better andbetter casting for my shoots.

well, this is the best. practice i think the best advice and i think the models. just try to get better models because no model, no shoot. yes, for me now even if i know i don't have a girl for theshoot, i better cancel now because i now alreadyhave so much in my book, so if the model is notgoing to add to my book,

i'm not doing it. then i, in many of my stories, i try to add unexpectedmoments to the shoot, just something that isthese beautiful poses and then something that just breaks, breaks the story in a good way. this just looks like unexpected moments but at least these two they were expected. i told them to smile but very,

but in a very believable way. it took some time, notlong but they did it. doesn't look staged butit was pretty much staged but they were so goodand we made them laugh so they laughed. i love doing this likesmiling, smiling images, just love, love, love that. then playing with your crop. having a little bit ofbackground on the top,

cropping half of the face off. just playing with all these cool crops. sometimes it works and it looks cool, sometimes it doesn't. and for me, i know that i need to get that crop in the camera. if i didn't get in the camera, i'm just so bad in croppingwhen it's already done. i just don't see it asmuch, i don't like to crop.

like shooting the wholeimage then cropping, no, i need to get it in the camera. most of my images i think, i would say 95% of the crops that i have were done in the camera. because then when you lookthrough all these images when you pick the shot, i don't see, immediately you see the final. i don't see it being cropped after.

i need the final in my camera. and if you know me a little bit, you know that i'm crazy about hands. now when casting i'm just okay, can we get a good girl with good hands and if i have good hands, i can do so much with hands. around the face, around her body, just i'm obsessed with hands,

with manicure, with different hand poses. i just love to play with it and i think hands add so muchto the beauty photography. then being creative. i think some of my imagesare very clean which i love. i love clean, i liketimeless, i like clean. i like just timeless images but sometimes i feel likeexpressing myself more and it's by doing the thingsyou think are cool for you.

a curtain of the hair and putting on her, just even that it was itchy for her but that's okay, she suffereda little bit, we got the shot. and then this project thati have the whole series with the manicure where we colored the fruits in different colors. this was a personal project that makeup artists and i had in our mind. we got together in the studio.

well, actually my house,not even the studio but it's a big house i had back then. got the nail, themanicurist, the nail model and got the whole series that i just love those series whenwe colored all the fruits. this one is for, was formodels that come as well. we wanted the flowers around the face and i have the whole series of the flowers on her body, on the face, everywhere.

just breaking in. because i think when youlook at somebody's work and it's all these clean images, i think it can getpretty boring over time. sometimes it's good to just cut it and have somethingunexpected in your book. even when i take my book to see, for the clients to see. first, i have very relevant images

if i'm going for the meetingwith a cosmetic company, i would always have likerelevant cosmetic images that will be very relevant in terms of style for the client to see. but in the very end, i willhave something that will say who i am, what i like to do and clients like to see that, that you can expressyourself in different ways. i put this kind of stuffin the very end of the book

and not a lot, just few images so they could see thatwhat you have in mind besides all these commercial work. and not the last, but which is extremely, extremely, extremelyimportant is retouching. i don't retouch myself. i did but i didn't do agood job, i didn't like it. i didn't do a good job. i was spending hoursdoing it and i hated it--

- [audience member] didn'tlike it as student either. - yes, yes. that's when i retouched, tried to. i will sit in the computerand just trying to do it. and in the end, it didn't look good. i wasn't just good at itand i think you get better. you have to have the taste and you have to do it all thetime to become good at it. i didn't want to waste my time

because it's not what i love to do. first, i used some retouches, now i have few retouchesconsistently that i use because with retouching, ithink this is your style also because if you havethis whole amazing story and then retouching doesn't do a good job, it's a bummer for everyone including makeup, hairstylist and now all the people in the industry,

they know what the good retouching is. if we have all these amazing results and i then deliver bad images nobody will want to work with me. so it's my job to make sure that retouching looks at its best and everyone expects fromphotographer to do it. if you can do it, do it. practice, love it,

experiment with theretouching, get better. if you don't do a good job and you don't love it, don't do it. so i don't do it because i did a bad job. but i know, but i know what i want exactly so i know, it's not thati send out to retouch, to do whatever i want. no, i stay, i make little comments. make the nose smaller, makethe nails a little longer,

make her neck slimmer. i make all those different comments and i spend hours like commenting, doing through rounds of retouching. and it's good to have your one retouch or two retouches that you like so they know your kindof style that you like. so, you have to just mention, now i just mention few little things that

my retoucher won't think of. but usually now it's very easy because she knows exactly what i like. so very, very, very important and i think especiallyin beauty like coloring and for example, howwe desaturated the skin so the makeup and hereyes could pop up more. just all these little details, i think also retoucher gotbetter over time with me as well.

then we are going to talkabout the editing the story, how i do it, how i produce it and what do i do on set. we shoot, we started shooting, for example, i know i have to deliver five or six final images tothe magazine or to the client. we start shooting and i'ma pretty fast shooter. i think i'm fast. we're shooting and

then i stop, i'm shooting then i stop. i look through the images. i see what we got. if i see that i got the shot that i want, so i flick for exampletwo images that i love or three images that i love. i tag them and then i pick the best shots. i try to pick the best shot in the end of the look that i'm shooting,

that i know exactly what i got. if i didn't get it, i shoot again but i pick the shot in the spot so, i could take an opinionof the makeup artist, hairstylist, stylist because it's a collaboration. everyone needs to like the image and sometimes makeup artist or stylist see something that i don't see,

for example, there arewrinkles on the clothing that i won't be able to remove and post, so this doesn't work. and then i see that wrinkle,of course it doesn't work. or there is just hair sticking out. someway you won't be ableto fix it so we shoot more and sometimes it's the perfectshot but something is off, so we can stage thesame kind of pose again. sometimes we're able to do the same,

sometimes you shoot,you try to get the same but it's not the same. just trying to get the best shot in the end of each session. then we were talking about the crop. when i plan the story, i plan okay, they're like portraiture style so everything is going tobe the same kind of crop or is there going tobe like three quarters

and then close ups. all of these i try to,i plan, i don't try. i just plan it before. of course i can modifysomething along the way, how it goes when i see okay, this clothing just doesn'twork for full body, let's do something closer. but plan as much as you can before but don't get stuck ifsomething doesn't work.

for example, if i was thinking okay, i'm going to do this contrast lighting, this harsh lighting, i get on the set. i set up everything andit works on the assistant, the assistant looks good in that lighting but the model comes in, and she just doesn't lookgood in that lighting. be very flexible to modify the lighting based on the clothing, onthe model, on her mood.

just the whole vibe onset. i plan as much as i can but i'm very much open minded on set, on how i can change it depending on how the story flows. then if i see that ihave all these closeups and the one three quarters and it's kind of, so sometimes i try toget two, three quarters

so there is not just one shot that is or just plan accordingly. i'm listening to my team, of course i trust my instinct in the end what to pick, which image to pick but i select the peoplethat i love to work with. i select them based on theimages they have in their book and they have them because of their taste. i trust their taste.

i would listen to makeupor hair or manicurist on what they have to add to the process of for example, sending inspirations. when i send inspirationsto the makeup artist say, okay, this is the mood board. this is the directionbut don't do the same. this is just idea. i want you to come upwith something unique that will be you and us,

not just don't copy the thing. i trust them in selecting the images. if hairstylist says, "oh, okayjust i don't love this image, "i'm not going to use it in my book." try to reach the compromiseof the images that you'd like to see in the end. and i think you pickthe team that you like so your tastes are a little bit i think they are similar taste to you.

for me i think in the end, we come up with the samekind of image that we like for example, from 50images we like two images. those two images arethe same that they like. i think it's not the coincidence, it's just a matter of taste and how you pick your team. i don't usually, we don't usually argue. when we see the shot,everyone sees the shot.

it's the shot, let's move on. let's not waste our time on the shot. and don't show anythingthat you don't like. i know sometimes you,there are five beautiful or three beautiful shots, you don't know what to pick, and sometimes thinking okay, i'm going to show this tothe editor and let them pick. but if i do that i don't send something

that i would not like to see in the end because they're going to pick that shot and you'll hate them. because i think anything, ifsomething goes wrong on the set it's photographer's responsibility. if makeup artist is bador hairstylist is bad or something happened on the set, even if it's not photographer's fault, in the end it's my fault.

this is how it goes always. same if i pick, if someone picks the shot, edits or picks the shotthat the crew doesn't like, they'll think this is in the end my work, it's my name is going to be there. i just don't send anythingthat i don't like. and if we shot somethingand the results is just, sometimes it happens,it doesn't happen often but it does happen thatyou are not satisfied.

at this stage of my career, i just don't run it. i just say sorry, this is their situation. this is how it went, i don't want to put just work out there. if we are going to doit, it needs to be on the higher level or the samelevel that we are now. i just don't retouches,i don't put it out there. we just kill the story and that's okay

and we move on, we makenew beautiful images. just try with your work tobe very, very consistent and try to push yourself every time. now what's my favoritestory if you would ask me, it's my last stories because i put so mucheffort on the last stories like thinking about it all the time. waking up in the middleof the night thinking, like thinking in the morning,in the shower, everywhere.

the stories that are inthe past i like them but i just got tired of them. so now in my mind something new, my favorite stories are alwaysthe last stories that i did because they're fresh andi want to share with them, i just got inspired by them. yes and thank you so much. so, you're welcome toask me any questions. i try to explain my way to who i am

because now it's easy to say what i do. but i think it's very important to understand how icame to where i am now. i think there is stillso much more work to do in the future and i'm so excited to see what the future holds. but i don't believe in luck at all, well, there is some luck but i believe in hard workand training yourself,

in polishing your style,in meeting new people and just developing yourself as a person because i'm not the same person i was six years ago when i was here. just develop yourself, build yourself. just get inspired and justmove forward all the time. - [man] we have time for a short q&a, i'll pass around the mic, please use it, it's for the video.

(snickers) - [audience member] hi,thank you for sharing with us all of your great work, you know? a lot of us are in the program now and i just want to ask you a question. what was your transition like? when you graduated from the program you said, all right, i'm going to do this, i need to make this work.- yes.

- [audience member] whatwas that like for you? what was the process? how'd you feel goingthrough those moments? - the process i developed,i shot a lot for myself, just doing simple beauty work. submitting this beautywork to the magazines even though it wasn't full beauty story. just submitting. you would go to mywebsite and you see okay,

she got published in elle or she got published in marie claire or she published anywhere. it didn't matter the country. i just wanted to be apublished photographer. and then when i was published photographer and i reached out to the magazines, they were able to give me the pull letter and i was able to pull clothing

that you can see nowin a lot of my shoots. but i think what i did,i just kept on shooting. kept on generating ideas, kepton brainstorming those ideas, kept on reaching out to the hairstylist, to the manicurist anddoing my own body of work that will read me, will be classy. and sometimes if i didn't a good model i always think, okay, idon't have a good face, i would shoot just hands.

because in the end, your work needs to be just the high level and i think in high level beauty, i was very lucky to love beauty, but i think in beauty toreach the great image, good quality, even cleanimage is much easier than to do this fantastic (sneezes)high end, bless you, photo shoot, a fashion shoot.

for me, it was the most important, even if it's simple butit needs to be high end. it needs to be classy,it needs to be beautiful. it needs to stay to the standards. i didn't want to dosomething with the clothes of a known brands thatdidn't look like anything but just to have them. i will shoot girls withno clothing, cut them off but have a just high standard image.

and only when i was ableto get pull letters, and get prada, miomio,whatever, all these brands, i would shoot fashion,include fashion as well. i just kept on shooting, kepton brainstorming consistently and pushing myself to new ideas, coming up with ideas tomakeup artists, to anyone. yes. - [audience member] hi there. - hello.- hello.

i'm curious, (mumbles). it's awesome you reallymade the point of shooting a lot of personal workespecially starting out and putting that andbuilding that book up. at this stage of where you are right now, what's the percentage do you think of jobs that you're getting that are commissioned from publications versus still projects that you're doing

with other people in your team, and then you're submitting those stories around where you think they might fit? - yeah. now, i think all my workis based on the magazines. so magazines, i send them out ideas so they come up to me, some magazines do come up to me finally. it took many years but somereally write to me sometimes.

but still i'm pushing myselfto them as well all the time. now it's mostly allcommissioned by the publications because with publications,i can get good girls. i can get big girls. because if i go to the, and i can get clothing thateven to the beauty shoot they add so much, the styling add so much. because i can't have stylingwithout the pull letter and pull letter i can haveonly with the magazine.

now mostly it's the work for the magazines but still, all those ideas are my ideas. i submit to the magazine and there they pick one of my idea,so it's still personal because with the magazinesyou can get so much creative, it's still you. you just have access to big models, great makeup artists and hairstylists. for example, makeupartist she has a choice

to shoot for harper'sbazaar or just nothing so she would go for harper's bazaar. because i have with the magazines, you have so much more accessto the things that you can do. mostly but for example rightnow was following one model, she's super young, she justsigned with yves saint laurent and she's from israel butnow she's in new york. she doesn't have, she hasjust few images in her book but she's just fantastic.

she's new, nobody shoots her so i saw in her instagramthat she's in new york so i messaged to the stylist that i know and then to the makeup,would you be interested just to shoot her? even if we don't have the publication will you be interestedbecause she'll be in a year because she's so young,she's maybe 16 or 15. but maybe in two years she'll be big,

it's one of the most beautifulgirls i've ever seen. i'll do it. if i see that face, like i'll do it, i'm doing it that next week because she'll be big, i just see it. i've been following her,i want her, i'll do it. - hi.- hello. - [audience member] a question i think could be interesting for usthat are not from new york,

how did you start your connection? like networking, how, ithink that's my question. (snickers) thank you. - that's with people or withmagazines or with anyone? anyone?- mostly, yeah. people, magazine. - i think now instagramis such a fantastic tool. now everyone follows, likepeople follow each other. they follow, we seeeach other's work a lot

so i can write a messagein instagram to someone. even not email, sometimesi would use email but i think if it's just not the agency, if it's just a creative person, i would just write a messagein instagram approach and say, "hey, i love your work." or i can just comment, hey,your work is fantastic, i would love to collaborate. or just shoot in the end message.

and even with some magazine when i have an email which is an email but it happened to methat with few magazines when i couldn't find thecontent in the internet, i just looked and looked, icouldn't find the beauty ad or editor-in-chief, i just couldn't find. and so, i was okay, i'm going to write. it was i think instagram. yes, i wrote to a few people

and out of 10 for example that i wrote, maybe one responded but they respond. some people respondonly from the internet. but with now i try to find the contact in the internet of some people. there are so many emailsthere that you will, would never, you just need to look for it. in harper's bazaar something then you go, you see the name of the editor

and sometimes there is even an email. or if there is no email butemail of the other person, you can kind of guess how you can form the email of the beauty. so they put first name andlast name add blah, blah, blah. i write and there is beautyeditor or someone else that there is just a name. you form the same and it works. just research, see it in, see it in,

look for contacts becausethey are not for everyone but you can find so muchjust for researching. and building your team,just meet with people. sometimes i go for coffee with people and someone is reaching out to me and say, "hey, i would love to work with you. "let's go, let's meet for coffee." i would go for coffee sometimes but i feel when i see the work,

i don't even need to go forcoffee with that person. i feel that if this work, i see already the peoplethey are by their work. i think even before going to coffee, you know you will wantto work with that person because this is their work or you will not want towork with that person. i still go for coffee but i know, i know. i know before the coffee happens

if it's going to happen or no. - [audience member] hi. - hello. - [man] no, no, no. it's good to hear. - [audience member] hi,thanks for showing your work and like, for the photos, how do you shoot exterior photos and as well the, how do youarrange your photo shoots?

- how do i arrange? - [audience member] yeah,yeah, photo shoot and yeah. - logistically? - [audience member] likewhen you shoot exterior. - outside? - [audience member] yeahwith lights of course. - one of the shoots i'veshot in the new jersey there were two buildings. one is called hamilton house

and another one the oakman. so i contacted, they'rebrand new luxury buildings so i contact the management and say, "hey, i'm beauty and fashion photographer "shooting this fantastic model "that is just going to blow your mind. "and it's going to be a socialmedia, it's so strong now. "you have to have your reputation up "so please allow me to use the space.

"it will be nice, we'll will be quiet. "i'll give you credit everywhere." and just contact them. same for the motel that i hadconnection with the stylist and she got connection with the motel. we got in contact with the motel and just asked them ifwe could shoot there. just reach out to themanagers and ask them if and sometimes there is a no.

they say no, sorry guys. or sometimes, hey, you have to pay $3,000 and you say okay, no.(audience laughs) but i think in this kind of business, you just have to push yourself and there are so many no's. with time you get insulted first but then you care butyou don't care as much. okay, i'll try more.

so same with the editors. i send the messages to so many people and i don't hear back. so what do you do? you don't get upset, youjust continue on trying. write again a follow up in six months. okay, this is my newwork, please take a look. so just explore or if you've seen that some photographer that you know,

someone chat there so ask them. don't hesitate to ask becausei think it's very important when we are photographers justto be friends to each other. just give advices, givecontacts, just share information because we're in the same boat. i don't believe in competition that much. it's you and your work, if you're good, you're going to be paid. you're going to progress

and i think it's so fantasticif we progress together, we become greatphotographers all the time. - [audience member] how aboutlike permits and your research like when you planned,before you plan to shoot? your outside photography or whatever.- how i trained before? - [audience member] likeresearch development or like think of getting a permit. - i didn't shoot thatmuch in public spaces,

it was more for buildings or the motels. i didn't get any permitsfor that, i have insurance just in case if something happens, if some light falls on someone. i think it's not that much money, i think it's maybe $50a month or something. but in this country i thinkit's better safe than sorry and i've been paying it for many years and i feel okay, maybeeven it's 100 a month,

i don't remember but i feel you don't mess up with insurance, you don't and taxes, so don't. get yourself insurance but permits, i didn't get any because i hadthe yes from the management. - [audience member] i'mcurious about the retouching. - yes. - [audience member] areyou working with people here in the united statesor is it like international?

- i have this retoucherfor four or five years that i've been working a lot. it's 100berlin retouching, i love her and i think we started talking together but i think her work was evenbetter than mine was before, and still it's pretty good. we started out together,we worked together so much so she helps me out on editorials. i give her my commercial clients

and then i have a fewmore retouches as well which i love, which i use sometimes but i have this main core retoucher that i would use for most of my work. just building the booktogether and growing together. - [audience member] i actuallydid, thank you (mumbles). i did have a question. - [audience member] there you go. - oh and she's in berlin.

she's berlin, she expandedinto france so she's overseas. - [audience member] youknow, to the international aspect of this, i was really impressed when i was reading through your bio and you shoot for harper's bazaar but it's harper's bazaarukraine or harper's germany and you know, five otherinternational versions of bazaar and the same with elle magazine and the same with marie claire.

it can't be a coincidence. i mean, how do you orchestratethis international? - i write emails, i reach out. they didn't come to me, iwrote an email, an introduction and say hey, i wouldlove to shoot with you. i'm this, look at my work. look what i can do for you. this is the mood boards, this is my team, i can get this team.

and sometimes if i havea (mumbles) to cast i can get you this girl. so i approach them, i write to them. to ukraine, i'm originally from ukraine so i wrote to but this wasn'tmy first harper's bazaar. i think harper's bazaar kazakhstan was my first harper's bazaar and they helped me tremendouslyto build my book up, to get my book together,

to allow me to use their name, to bring great models on set, and to create great stories for them. so, i reached out to themand say hey, i would love to and they gave me a chance. they love the outcome and istill continue shooting for them because this is the wayi can express myself through all those beautystories that i do to them. but now some people reach out to me,

some but i still do mywhole work all the time. every few weeks i justreach out with mood boards and mood boards take a lot of time just to brainstorm ideas, to put them in, and you need to make sure and i'm still learning how to do it, how to impress with your mood boards. because something can be in my head but it needs to readwell in the mood board.

because before i underestimated, okay, i would just put images together, okay, here you are, look. no, now you need toreally make it look nice so people would get exactlywhat you want to shoot. - [man] anybody else? thank you, yulia. - thank you.