The woods in Wuhlheide, Berlin, felt like the perfect spot to document the brilliant and inspiring work of Aleksander Stojanov, known for his unique approach on analog portraits in large format. On that day, Aleksander was accompanied by Diana Dobrea, who beautifully merged herself with branches, trees and leaves surrounding us.
Aleksander Stojanov's Art
In times when we can take as many photographs as we want, when we want, using our phones or different types of digital cameras, it was fascinating to follow the thought, care and, most of all, passion, that guide Aleksander in every single shot when using his 4x5 large format Graflex Speed Graphic with an Aero Ektar lens - he also owns a 4x5 Stenopeika and an bigger 8x10 Svedovsky large format camera.
It’s a whole different approach: it requires more time, more patience and the reward is absolutely worth it. From the moment that a location was chosen and Aleks would start adjusting the camera, to Diana finding her pose (sometimes a freshly found small tree branch would add a final touch to it), until the moment of the shutter being fired, the feeling was the same: it was art being created, shot after shot.
Aleksander has been shooting analog for the past 10 years, when he arrived in Berlin moving from Slovenia. When choosing large format, in his own words, ‘I shoot large format especially because the big screen of the camera allows me to distance myself from the composition that I’m creating, giving me the chance to observe everything that’s happening from afar, almost like I’m not even there’.
Apart from his Instagram profile, you can support Aleksander’s work on Patreon, where he uploads full & high resolution sets of photographs. Amongst them, you will find the beautiful results of this session with Diana.
with Aleksander Stojanov - @aleksanderstojanov - and Diana Dobrea - @_dianium_