Shades

Full Name: Tasha Zem (Nataliia Zemskova)

Age: 33

Country: Ukraine

Photography Genre: fashion & commercial

Projects:

- TV channel RanokUa “Dark angel in the city”. The project focuses on human emotions in the urban environment and how people manage their time in the non-stop rhythms of the city.

- Vogue “Flowers Whisper” with Ukrainian fashion brand.

- “All that leopard”. The project dedicated to protecting leopards from the extinction of the species and the use of fur in the fashion industry.

Brand affiliations: collaboration with Agent Provocateur, I.D.Sarrieri, John Richmond, Olya Mak, Millanovias and etc.

Awards:

- 500PX redactor’s choice of 2020

- Best of 2020 by the ScorpioJin Magazine

- 500PX’s Top models of 2023

- 500PX Woman for women of 2024

I think all talents are discovered in childhood. My interest in art, fashion and of course photography has always been stronger in me than anything else.

From the moment my parents got their first Polaroid, I fell absolutely in love with the magic of photography! So much so that my grandmother saved all the fashion magazines from my childhood, realizing how much they would be useful for my inspiration in the future.

I grew up watching movies from the 90s, saw the era of top models and stunning covers of top glossy magazines. This inspired me to learn how to shoot just as aesthetically and beautifully. I still keep my first camera as a reminder that photography is real magic that we create ourselves.

The better the idea, mood boards , location and team, the better the result. Details play a huge role, so they are given special attention. I think about everything in advance, from model casting and location, to lighting and the full set of equipment I will use.

As a rule, pre-production takes 2/3 of the entire shooting process and can last from a couple of weeks to several months, depending on the project.

The distinctive feature of my images is femininity on the verge of provocation. A kind of flirt with the viewer. It is most often about the mood in the frame. I try to constantly look for new inspiration and work with angles, light, stylization and color.

I am always inspired by strong personalities, movies and music! Especially if it's from the 80-90s, at that time they filmed in a very special way, with soul and incredibly beautiful visuals.

This is a sad story. In 2022, war broke out in Ukraine, all plans and prospects for the future were destroyed. I was scared and confused, like all people in our country. After 5 months, I realized that the only thing that can emotionally save me is photography. That's when I and the editor of Touch magazine (a Ukrainian magazine) organized a team to shoot a beautiful and inspiring story in a blooming garden. As a reminder that the world is beautiful and everything is cyclical, like the changing seasons of the year.

We got a wonderful result and I am proud of it. This shoot taught me not to put my creativity and ideas on hold, to collaborate with others quickly and easily, and to stay true to myself.

A photography doesn't always have to speak to the viewer. Sometimes it can be simple, understandable and without a global idea. But if you want to make it unusual, it's worth thinking about three elements: what my photos says, how the hero/model interacts with the location, and what the viewer should feel.

I like to change in photography, to experiment and move away from my usual style. And my clients appreciate it very much, some of them experiment with me. For more conservative tasks, such as a lookbook, I work for the right result. My portfolio ranges from provocative to commercial shots, so the client always understands what they will get as a result.

I think that if you want to learn, you should learn only from best of the best! I was most influenced by Helmut Newton's work. He managed to find the line between timeless style and provocation.

It's high art! I'm also inspired by Asian photographers such as Daido Moriyama, Zhong Lin, Chiron Duong and Leslie Zhang.

I take the finished photo during the shoot so that I don't have to spend time on extensive retouching. When everything is technically perfect, only color can give the photo its finished look, expressiveness and convey the mood. I pay a lot of attention to color correction.

I model the light in advance in the Set-a-light 3D program. Then I do a test shoot and only after getting practical experience I can safely use it in other projects. I take extra batteries, lenses, sometimes a second camera. If you know your equipment well and what its potential is, understand how the light works, you can minimize all the problems.

- Don't stop! Try it even if you don't do well the first time.

- Look at the best and be inspired by them.

- Don't be a copy of other photographers. Take the most interesting ideas from them and come up with your own ideas.

- Always learn. All great photographers kept learning about photography and how to express themselves in it all their lives!

I like a lot of my work, but I haven't made my best and most favorite photo yet.

Now I am collecting fresh ideas that I will be able to implement and show you in the near future. I want to talk to the viewer about the cult of brands and the desire of people to be like a beautiful picture from Instagram.

Instagram:@tashazem

Website:bytashazem.wixsite.com/main