Vladimir Godnik is an accomplished professional photographer based in Russia and a regular contributor to moodboard. Here we find out a bit more about one of our favourite moodboarders:
I understand you are producing some brilliant images for us. Can you tell me how you got into photography and how long you have been in the business?
I was a computer programmer after finishing University and had never taken a single shot in my life. It was only after getting married and becoming a father of two sons, that I was pushed to take their photos – it was a time of black and white photography and for me it looked like mission impossible. I am not a type to do something practical like to knock a nail into a wall etc… But my wife was correctly blaming me for not taking the opportunity to photograph our kids (at that time it was a serious problem to find a good photographer because in the USSR where we lived studio photographers were guys who mostly took photos just for documents). So, in mid eighties photography became my passion and I started spending a lot of time shooting and sitting in the darkroom (which actually was our bathroom).
After few years of amateur photography I decided to become a professional. It was in 1991. I had no understanding of professional market and liked to take artistic photos.
It took I think about ten years to really become a professional experienced photographer with technical skills and understanding of how to work with the clients…
How do you find working in the stock industry and how does it compare with your other photographic clients?
When I started I overcame a few very difficult periods because I was starting from scratch and because my local market was very vulnerable. For example after building success in advertising Hotel photography everything was then ruined by “Intifada” – I was in Israel at that time.
Another big reason I started working for stock agencies was my tiredness of marketing myself among the local market. I hated to call and say “Good morning, my name is such and such, maybe you need pictures – would you like to see my photos ?...”
It’s so devastating!
I spent 5 years without any profits building my collections within stock agencies, making all the possible mistakes I could and very slowly starting to see the first results over the last 2 years.
Stock agencies in my point of view, are an unbelievable break-through because of the following reasons -
a) You don’t have to ask for local work and when people come to you, you are the boss – take it or leave it.
b) When you work with few good production agencies hopefully you are more protected against local problems in photography markets
c) You can plan your time yourself.
But in any event you still have to work hard and be aware of what and how you should photograph to meet the industry demands.
Can you tell us about your latest moodboard submission and the inspiration behind it?
I find the way Moodboard helps me to find the right subjects and styles as a wonderful adventure! I am working every day and I think that if you don’t have an inspiration to work you just have to work more, otherwise you are not professional. Even when I shoot commercially for stock libabries, I still enjoy what I am doing. When Debbie (my moodboard editor) helps me with ideas or when she adds to my ideas the very important final touch – for me it is hundred time more important than “inspiration”. I am really happy with our working relationship and believe together we are gaining good results. It inspires me to keep working and submit my imagery – it’s a fruit of our common work!
The models you use have really interesting faces, how/where do you find them?
I like the people I photograph and hopefully they feel safe, happy and relaxed with me shooting them. Hopefully I have a good reputation and this helps to find new people (also through the ones that I already photographed).
How often do you shoot for stock?
I am trying to make no less than 5 shoots a week.
As a professional photographer, do you still find time to shoot images for yourself?
I’d love to make it much more often but the previous answer shows that I am very busy with not much time left for this… Sometimes I try whilst making stock pictures to work almost like if I were to do it for myself… My dream is to come back to “pure” photography – to give to it a decent part of my time but I don’t think that even then I will stop working in stock photography – it is difficult to achieve constant results and I am afraid that if I stopped for a serious period of time, it would be easy to lose it!
If you weren’t a photographer, what would be your second career choice?
When I was a teenager I dreamt to professionally play lead guitar in a good group. I wasn’t gifted enough for it and I am happy I stopped on time. But if I was – this would be a choice…
Many thanks Vladimir!