Viktorie Willant
Fitting in
Even though we're in lockdown I still have jobs, however, I don't have live lessons which is a problem as I don't have access to the studio and the overall kit room. Due to that my recent work has been analogue.
I was supposed to go to Jerusalem for an exchange program (Erasmus) but thanks to covid that didn't happen. I like the culture that's why I chose Jerusalem initially. I visit countries like Jordan, Morocco and other countries in the region every year. I am attracted to them due to their hidden identity, and how you can get lost in their streets.
When I get to such an environment I prefer to fit in and wear the same clothing as the locals. It started with me just wanting to try the clothing and became such a warm experience and the change of identity, that I decided to keep doing it every time I go to explore.
I am a freelancer, but I still freelance in photography.
Photography and Personality
My mom got me into photography. She purchased my first camera when I was around 10 years old. It was a small shitty digital camera, and I remember I was very annoyed with it. I shot everyone, intending to capture people looking unattractive which was my little fun.
I soon realised that I like to take photographs of people the most. I enjoy visual explorations of the body. I appreciate skin and portraits. Whether it is a free project or work, it's all about the energy that people have. It is hard to work with the body and overall a person that you don't know as they get shy. I am not a pushy person that can put someone on the spot and say ''hey get naked''. When people enjoy performing in front of the camera, I automatically work better, and the ideas go in hand, I almost read the ideas from the people I shoot so, it reflects them.
Often when I photograph someone, they are from a field of art, and the person usually knows that his/her target is to create more out of this photoshoot than just him looking pretty. It is almost a collaboration.
When you don't know the person, the photos have a tendency not to look as good as I imagined them to be, since you don't know which personality you are working with.
Sexual 3D world
My last project was running around the topic of Avatar. We had 3 weeks to create it.
I am not really into the virtual aspect, I prefer the static image. I started exploring the sexual business in the form of an avatar. When I was doing research, I found out that each article I opened that was orientated toward ''designing someone in a 3D world", was focused on women. And it occurred to me that the time is no longer like in the Middle Ages when the courtesans were just girls that the demand does not meet even though the world has evolved.
I wanted to contribute to the virtual environment with some male avatar with some masculinity. The guys I contacted were from a rugby team, and they were cool even though I never met them before.
This is also the great thing about photography, you constantly gain new contacts.
level up
I feel like photography in the Czech Republic from the 90s slowed down in developing. The last known thing that impacted somehow the photography world was the Slovak new wave of Tono Stano who caught up with it and managed to show it abroad. It's time to focus on photography and start presenting it on some sort of level.
Once again, I wish there was a bigger choice within photo publications. I enjoy contributing to some magazines or to some platforms that already exist. It makes me very happy to publish myself as part of something I enjoy. I like working for exhibitions too, but not the very well-adjusted photos in the frames.
Free creation comes to me naturally, it comes and goes. When someone asks me to take photos of their product, it's not as fun as taking photos for a magazine. That specifies a topic, and you need to make it visually work. You are creating something between graphics and a photo plus you get a physical outcome, and the best part is working with a team.
In the future, I would like to work for some studio or maybe have my own, with people from a different kind of media backgrounds so we can collaborate. But I think it's important to learn in another studio that exists to get the experience in getting orders and learn how it functions.
When I compose a visual portrait in my head, I think in colours.
