Someone once said that creating a sculpture is easy: just take a piece of marble and cut away all the parts you don’t want. I could say the same about photography: take a hundred shots, throw away the ones you don’t want and crop out the parts you don’t want from the few shots that are left. It sounds simple, and anyone could do this, but not everyone would get good results. The key to success is having artistic vision or taste. That is what makes a photographer able to choose one subject over another and select which shots to keep.

My vision is the result of more than thirty years of observing nature and great works of art, reading and thinking about art, painting, as well as taking and analyzing photographs.

My photographs are generally unposed and unstaged and make use of natural lighting. In taking them I follow my vision, my instincts – I go by what feels right.

In image processing, on the other hand, I am strictly rational. I contemplate every step, clearly understanding laws of optics, algorithms of image processing software, and characteristics of human perception. This way my knowledge of science contributes to making a material picture close to the image I have in my mind.

My ambitious goal is to make every picture true to nature, and in doing this I often go through a great deal of effort just to create a single image. I invite you to judge the results, but this is the end to which I invest all my energy and knowledge.

As a person I was shaped by two cultures: Russian and American.

I was born and raised in Ukraine, got my doctorate in physics from a top-tier Russian university and made a successful career in science before immigrating to the United States fifteen years ago.

I used photography professionally throughout my two decade-long scientific career and had it as a serious hobby since childhood, so I mastered my photographic technique to perfection. I also have informal education in the art of painting (attended an art studio for five years), which shaped my taste and helped me develop that special vision that makes one an artist. The aesthetics of my work are primarily rooted in traditions and values of classical Russian art and great American photography.

When photography entered the digital era, tremendous improvements in technology and new means of artistic expression inspired me to devote more and more time to my long-time passion for nature photography. I traveled to remote and not-so-remote places that promised good shots, and one day the number of good pictures reached such a point that I could no longer keep them just for myself and my friends. In 2002, I reached out to the general public through this website. Though I do not advertise it, the site has become quite popular. People from around the globe compliment my pictures and quite a few of them express a desire to buy prints.

Finally, I have started selling limited edition prints through some New York City galleries. Those interested in purchasing the prints may contact me by e-mail for the current list of galleries offering my works.