/ 2014 / Portraiture / Personality

Jean Catoni

  • Photographer
    Olesya Shilkina, France

Olesya was born in Cherrpovets, Russia, she started photography while in secondary school. During the weekends she worked in a private print company in which she printed both color and black and white photographs by hand for clients as well as professionals. She worked as a printing technician for 6 years during which she learned all the mini labs (digital printing machines) as well as hand labs. After this she worked as a digital lab engineer for a year. During this period she began photographing herself and having her first clients. She decided to dedicate herself solely to photography . She ended her printing career and for two years worked as manager of a photography studio chain at the same time developing her photography skills. Next she opened her own photography studio and began attending workshops of world famous photographers. This helped her in her search for my her own direction in photography - genre portraits. The next step for Olesya was obtaining a maters in photography from SPEOS. Now she lives in Paris and works worldwide.

Olesya strives to work with people and characters. To conceive an image, an idea, for a specific person and then create it. Her portraits show a glimpse of what is hidden, they show the face of the person that one does not usually see: "I try to create dramatic portraits that are at the same time poetic. Every character in my universe has their own drama, and every portrait is my own portrait too."