This week on the Prodibi Pixel Magazine, we go to Astana in Kazakhstan to meet with Aiony Haust and to discuss portrait photography.
Aiony is a young visual artist who started shooting photos with his mobile phone before developing his own style of beautiful and natural portrait photographs.
Let's discover his work and how he creates connections with his models, all powered by Prodibi!
A few words about you, how did you start photography?
My name is Aiony Haust, I am 21 and I live in Astana, Kazakhstan. I started taking pictures at the age of 12 after I had found an old film camera in the garage of my house. All of a sudden I was hooked, it was obvious that I would love photography! I was very passionate!
Later, I started to get involved in a new direction of photography, at least at that time, mobilography, which I enjoyed for about 4 to 5 years. Mobilography has given me a foothold in the world of photography, but when I realized that I wanted something more, that I wanted to create a beautiful aesthetic and own a style, I bought my first camera and started shooting and studying with it.
Soon after, I became an ambassador for Canon Kazakhstan and we created a joint video about my photos. It boosted my confidence a lot.
Can you briefly explain your creative process for a great beauty shot?
To start, I have to get to know the girl I’ll shoot because the connection with the model is essential to convey her feelings in the photo. I need to trust her, then she will trust me, and with such connection you will get something beautiful.
I always try to convey the peculiarity of the girl that I shoot - physical, ethnic and moral, to capture her soul in a portrait. I try to experiment with color and make a full story captured in photos.
I am also in constant search for a location. My city is small and to find new sites I often walk and remember the places where I would like to shoot, already building a picture in my head. Shooting is always fun and cozy, maintaining the atmosphere of love and art.
Any advice for beginners who want to start portrait photography?
The first thing is to notice that the technique is not essential. Because even on a toy camera you can take amazing shots, check Lara Jade cheap camera challenge!
Be sure to learn how to work with natural light, to know how light draws, and at what time it is best to shoot. To understand the light, at first, you should take pictures in black&white so that the color does not distract you. The rest is at the discretion of the creative heart.
And the most important thing is to create, to create a lot, to devote it all of yourself and all of your time.
Are you inspired by the work of other photographers or directors, painters?
Of course! I want to list some of the photographers whose work inspires me all the time:
- Elizaveta Porodina
Her photos are lively, dynamic, sharp and cutting. They can grab your attention. You look at her works and you get the feeling that now she will fall, flutter, fly away. - Zhang JiaCheng
She is one of the few film photographers who do the magic. A wonderful sense of color, and the inimitable Chinese style of traditional photography. - Igor Pavlov
He is an excellent European fashion photographer. Stylish portraits, pleasant shades and perfect composition of the shot.
Among the artists, I choose the classic ones - Gustav Klimt, Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky.
And, directors. My heart trembles from the paintings of Wong Kar-wai. This light, this movement, this idealization of moments is beautiful. And also, Xavier Dolan. He is brave.
All these artists inspire me.
*Read On: Beauty Shots like you've never seen by Juventino Mateo Leon and Desolate landscapes and troubling portraits in Kyrgyzstan with Elliott Verdier
Is there someone in the world you dream to photograph or a particular goal you wish to reach?
The goal that I want to achieve is to appear on the cover of Vogue. This is my main goal at the moment.
And dreams of photographing some people, of course, they exist. These are some magical creatures in the world who took human form, with whom I want to work. These people are Nastya Zhidkova, supermodel Winnie Harlow and the very special Wan Yi Hua.
Do you have projects for the future like workshops, personal series?
I want to make a photo project next year about the “Aesthetics of Kazakhstan”. In my country, there are many beautiful places that nature has created. I want to invite into the project all the best and most talented designers from Kazakhstan, one beautiful model that will become the face of this project, and we will go to every beautiful corner of my homeland.
For each place, there will be a unique angle which will be combined with the terrain and merge with the environment, not complement, but be a single whole. It will take a lot of time, effort and money, but for the sake of art, nothing is a pity!
To see more from Aiony:
His Website
Instagram
Facebook
All photographs copyright Aiony Haust and used with his permission.
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