This architect’s projects collect thousands of “likes”, and the editors-in-chief of leading publications repost them on their personal profiles. We asked Olena to write a column about what such online popularity gives her, and how to create a photogenic interior.
Photo: portrait by Eliza Shabo, interiors by Andrey Avdeenko
On the internet and the media
The internet has become a proving ground for countless top premieres of spaces and objects. If design is a precise mirror of what society is breathing at the moment, then without informative platforms that mirror would hang facing the wall. Truly good media will turn their audience’s eyes to good examples rather than point reproachfully at bad ones, filling their reviews with an educational component. This rightly shapes the visual culture and taste of an ordinary person and gives the architect one more incentive to grow. The architect sums up information, looks for their own way of expressing it, puts it into the environment being created — and something more comes out: beautiful, unique, needed.
On the importance of the “picture”
Although outward effects are the first thing to catch the eye, and audiences are drawn more to beautiful pictures, I tend to think that the author’s personal vision, independence of thinking, a meaningful, functional and organised environment are the next things that are always noticed and easily read by the audience. So its criteria are always deep.
An interior shoot is the tip of the iceberg; it is what everyone looks at. But there are also invisible parts that go down to deeper levels. They are what the tip of the iceberg cannot exist without: knowledge, the designer’s identity, an understanding of their work, laid into the foundation of everything. Although all of this stays off-camera, it is still always felt and conveyed. I don’t work on the tip; I work on the iceberg and patiently assemble it piece by piece. While you search, doubt, create — you move forward. I believe a designer doesn’t need to lower the bar by making the picture the goal; on the contrary, one should raise that bar by growing.
A shoot is a kind of shot: aimed correctly, it hits very important targets and gives more than you might expect. A shoot is needed for the future — for competitions, work with the media, one’s own portfolio. In a word, for a happy continuation in the profession.
On being photogenic
A project is photogenic when it is comfortable for the eye to look at. The whole shoot resembles a logically built selection, the essence is not clouded, the object is self-sufficient and able to tell about itself without additional explanations.
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On a good photographer
A good interior is always made so that the viewer thinks rather than merely admires. A good photographer won’t take this quality away from an interior. Two different photographers can show the same thing in completely different ways — like a drawing and a sketch, say. For a good project, being photogenic is not always a given. But for a “so-so” interior it can be a happy accident. A lot depends on the photographer’s skill here.
Speaking of a project being photogenic, one can also draw a parallel with a person being photogenic, which doesn’t always depend on beauty. There is a wonderful line by Jean Epstein: “I would describe as photogenic any aspect of things, beings or souls whose moral character is enhanced by filmic reproduction.”
On preparing a shoot
Like many designers, I think about images and the right tone for my interiors. Although I position them as contemporary, I still make a certain special accent: it matters to me to express in the interior my attitude to the knowledge that shaped me. A shoot, like a marker, can highlight this context built into each project.
The photographer’s eye is very important — clean, precise and identical to the architect’s, so that it doesn’t distort the idea of the environment or give it any chance of becoming its own opposite. For me that photographer is Andrey Avdeenko. He feels his way into a space very easily and, importantly, what I do is close and clear to him.
As a rule, I prepare for a shoot in advance and don’t neglect details. Together with Andrey we keep the process in our hands and understand each other without words. When you capture an interior or architecture, a special approach is needed — it can’t be done mechanically if you mean to convey the essence.
On privacy
There are topics one doesn’t particularly want to discuss in public. A private interior is one of them. Unfortunately, it happens that a client politely declines the offer to photograph and show their home. I understand that, and I am grateful to my clients when the chance to capture the work does come about.
On the benefits for the client
The initiative for a shoot always comes from the architect. But it opens up prospects not only for them or the photographer — the client gets echoes of their home in publications in the best print reviews or on major international websites, in competition wins. That is not only a compliment, so pleasant emotionally, but also a materially beneficial event, since it increases the property’s market value. So the client gets one more confirmation that the choice of designer and the path taken together were right. And for the architect this trend should become a new, additional responsibility. #DIG
