Portfolio: Mishka Bochkarev

— I like taking pictures of everything around me, I take pictures all the time. It is my passion, my therapy, and my meditation.

Shooting can provoke the most varied emotions in me — surprise or fright, brazen arrogance or apathy and lethargy. You never know what a new day brings.

I don’t care what to shoot. The ‘this I am shooting, and this I am not shooting’ approach constrains. I like everything beautiful. But I have already found my genre in photography — or rather, came back to what attracted me in photography in the first place — street photography. This genre always brings surprises and gifts.

People often can’t tell that I am shooting them. Sometimes I need to ask for permission, especially if I want to capture a detail that is almost impossible to capture casually. But I am a sociophobe and I don’t like talking to people much. I try not to communicate with the people in my photographs: it distracts me, the same as looking at photographs during the shoot.

I don’t plan anything, things just happen. I am just present here and now, shooting everything that attracts my attention.

There are no secret techniques left, everything is already known. I photograph on a digital camera, on my iPhone, on anything that is at hand. Equipment doesn’t matter, but the choice depends on what you need. For me, it is important that the camera is small with a quiet shutter release and built-in flash, for discreet shooting. I use digital, because modern photography requires a modern instrument.

My photographs are directly linked to what I am interested in. A man does not exist outside of his environment.

Inspiration is a side effect of life. I photograph, I live, and this is what inspires me.

It is hard for me to evaluate my photographs. I leave it to those who are looking at them.