{"id":8675,"date":"2018-05-16T21:24:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T19:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.stage.westend61.com\/blog\/?p=8675"},"modified":"2022-03-15T17:32:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T16:32:00","slug":"women-family-strong-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westend61.de\/blog\/en\/women-family-strong-emotions\/","title":{"rendered":"Women, family, strong emotions – An interview with Katharina Mikhrin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a producer and distributor of stock photography, we permanently know about the number of pictures in our portfolio. It would take a while to click through all of them – considering half a million photos! We are thankful for every single photo provided by our many excellent photographers being a part of our team for years and also those that are new on board, bringing in a fresh breeze. One of the new faces is Katharina Mikhrin whose fantastic imagery is part of our stock since August 2017. We talked with her about her roots and her view on photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Katharina Mikhrin was born in Sankt Petersburg, Russia. Her family has lived there for over 200 years. Therefore her roots and the attached traditions play a significant role in her photography – even though her life path seemed to be headed into an entirely different and less artistic direction. As a lover of classical music, literature, movies and their directors she decided against the arts and creativity to start studying economics and law. It became clear very fast: this is not the right way for her and since the first time she held a camera in her hands and engaged with lights, colors, and compositions she was reminded of her roots. The photography got to her and ever since the fascination didn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eSankt Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. There are history and art everywhere. Since my childhood, I have been influenced by those things. Russians are addicted. When they fall in love with something they never leave it.\u201c<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Katharina lives in Germany. The original plan was to stay for a year, but now it\u2019s ten already. Moving out of the idyl into the more robust metropolitan Ruhr district did not negatively influence her photography. Since she pushes the trigger, she puts people in focus, often her own children. They know exactly what composition their mother is looking for. She puts a high value on interpersonal relationships and emotions. Besides her family, she often photographs women. She exactly knows how to place them, so she gets fierce pictures of self-confident personas. \u201eI made the experience that women have fewer fears in front of the camera. They are more interested in being photographed then men. They’re not shy but very open and free\u201c Katharina says.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eI don\u2019t take photos of professionals, no models but normal every day females. Maybe I will try to photograph models in the coming years. Who knows.\u201c<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At shootings, Katharina is permanently in motion. You could think she is in charge of the posing and not her models. \u201eI always try to capture the natural beauty of women. My models should see their pictures and feel as if they were looking into a mirror. That\u2019s the point where I\u2019m happy about my work\u201c, says Katharina about her way of working. Doing that she often uses natural light and a 35mm fixed focal length.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n