Photographer Research - Oleg Oprisco

Biography

Oleg Oprisсo was born in the small city of Lviv in western Ukraine. From the age of 16 he worked as an operator at a photo lab. At age 18, he moved to Kiev, where he began his professional photography career. At age 23, Oleg Oprisco changed from digital capture to film. He's now a 25 year old Ukrainian photographer based in Kiev. He performs very poetic portraits with great emotion and soul transmitted through the image. Each portrait is worked in depth for its staging, whether on the model (makeup and styling), the position, the atmosphere or the set used. A true creativity for each picture. 

Why I've chosen him

The reason that I have chosen Oleg as part of my photographer research is because his work caught my attention. A specific image of his that caught my eye was the fourth one below, where the butterflies have been interpreted in a way that makes them look as though they're escapin from the book that they were created in, His work is simplistic yet detailed, and it is evident that a lot of time goes into all of his photographs. His work will inspire quite a lot of my shoots, especially my exam when I hopefully go into Brighton. Most of his photographs usually contain one model and quite often two. This is the amount of people that I usually like to work with when I need models in my photography. I really admire his style of photograhy which is why I have chosen to study him and his work in more depth.

This picture looks pretty simple and effortless, however there is a lot of attributes in it that make it interesting. The model posing in this photograph has ridiculously long red hair, immediately making her come across as quite unique as her appearance looks as though she's adventurous when you go by the stereotype. She looks tiny when you focus on the background she's centred in. There is a large arch behind her which trails on in the distance, creating that depth approach to this image. The abnormal height of the book pile has evidently been created through photoshop. I like that the pile topples to a side and is nearly twice her height, as this image is really inspiring. I like photographing surreal pieces with books involved because you can be very imaginative with them. It's an overall unique and interesting photograph. 

This is a photograph that inspires me for my photography exam when I hopefully go into Brighton.  I like that the original photograph of the sea travels into the distance as you can see the city line faintly above the water. It portrays depth which has been something I've had fun shooting in this project. It, realistically, would have been impossible for a girl to climb up a stubbly rock that would be far too dangerous to climb without any safety, therefore for me it looks as though she has been photoshopped in with her balloon. This technique has inspired me to perhaps shoot a tall rock and a girl and place it into an image like this one. The coral  coloured balloon stands out against the sea water and creates an effective contrast. Overall, this photograph is fresh and conveys clear thoughts, as relaxing to the sound of the waves has always been extremely tranquil.

This photograph plays with my mind. I originally saw it as an ice cream, constructed of a variety of different colours. I then looked at it again and noticed the woman behind it holding the side. It's a piece of fabric tackling with the wind. The blurred background is effective in this piece because it allows the subject of the photograph to stand out. The colour and pattern (formal elements) make this photograph eye capturing. Although it may not actually be an ice cream, it has given me an idea of perhaps capturing a picture of a whippy ice cream in a cone and working photoshops magic on it. The colours are effective because pretty much the rest of the image are neutral colours. The model is also effective as she isn't looking at the camera, so it allows the viewer not to focus on her as much, and more so on the multicoloured material she's holding.

This is my favourite photograph of Oleg's. I like every aspect of it because it was the main image of his that captured my attention. It was the fact she was holding a book which attracted me the most. Because I took my first surreal piece with a book, it made me want to develop this idea, and Oleg is a photographer along with Joel Robison that has inspired me the most. In this picture,  I like the effect of butterflies flying out of the book. It conveys how the pages she is reading has come to life, or perhaps even the line she's reading. We read books and picture the scenes in our head, however surreal photography allows for these scenes to become physical forms actually appearing from the story, and that is what I admire most about this piece. Moreover, the neutral yellow colours featured in this picture also makes it look attractive because they're not over exaggerated colours, but soft and easy on the eye tones.

How he has influenced me

Oleg has influenced me in quite a number of ways. Firstly, I really like the backgrounds he uses behind his models in his work. They're quite vintage style background as it's clear that mostly buildings are used. These are then blurred to allow the subject of the photograph to stand out. I'd like to start taking some pictures that I can use for the background of my pieces instead of just white backgrounds. Although the white backgrounds may make my photographs look more defined, I feel that a background that links with the subject will be effective in surreall pieces. I have also been influenced by Oleg through his fourth image in this post, I took a photograph that was inspired by this piece which I have inserted below. I really liked the idea of thinks exploding from a book and therefore decided to use sweets as a physical example of the imagination bursting out from the pages. The second picture is of the ice cream I captured in Brighton during my exam, which I edited with multicoloured influenced by the 3rd picture of Oleg's in this post.

Summary

Overall, it is Oleg's surreal approach to photography that attracts me the most. The way he attaches certain things to his images or adds props and extra details in order to create an effective piece is something I have found myself loving recently. The second image of his is something that's made me excited for the exam and photographers who have that effect on me are my favourite.