Stock Images Free Biography
Source(google.com.pk)My name is Erik Johansson, I was born in 1985 outside a small town called Götene in the middle of Sweden. I grew up on a farm with my parents and two younger sisters. For as long as I can remember I have liked drawing. Probably because of my grandmother who was a painter. Early I also got interested in computers, escaping to other worlds in computer games. At the age of 15 I got my first digital camera which opened up a new world. Being used to drawing it felt quite strange to be done after capturing a photo, it wasn’t the process of creating something in the same way. Having an interest in computers made it a quite natural step to start playing around with the photos and creating something that you couldn’t capture with the camera. It was a great way of learning, learning by trying. But I didn’t considered it as a profession until years later.
In 2005 I moved to Gothenburg to study Computer engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. During my time studying I took up my interest for retouch once again. I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to realize and I saw it as problem solving trying to make it as realistic as possible. After publishing some of my images online I started to get requests about commissioned work from some local advertisement agencies. I started out freelancing in parallel with my studies while still working on personal projects. I got more and more jobs and at the time I finished my studies with a master in Interaction Design I felt like I rather wanted to try out the photography path. I moved to Norrköping in the eastern part of Sweden to start working full time as a freelance. I made new friends and got to work on interesting projects, both local and abroad. In early 2012 it was time for something new as I moved to Berlin, Germany. A very artistic city with lots of inspiration.
Today I work with both personal and commissioned projects, in 2011 I also started doing photography street illusions. In November 2011 I spoke at the TED conference in London about my photography and in May 2013 at the Adobe MAX conference. I’ve been working with clients such as Google, Adobe and Microsoft but the personal work and concepts will always be what’s most important. Growing up on the Swedish countryside had a big impact on my visual style. A lot of the environments in my photos are captured near places I know, around my parents’ home with wide open landscapes and small red houses. Inspiration is everywhere and what you can imagine is what you can create.
When your work showed up on iStock in 2010 it caused a major blast of amazement and creative energy. You inspired many people. As far as I know, you were the fastest advancing contributor ever to join. How did you decide to start selling your work on iStock, and are you happy that you did? Were you surprised that your work can sell so well even though it's not so commercial or stocky in the traditional sense of the word?
Elena: I didn't enjoy direct contact with clients and attending to their whims. This was a tipping point for my decision. It happened accidentally that my photo became photo of the week on iStock, which brought a spotlight on my work there, causing tremendous popularity. Although, I don't really believe anything happens by accident. I wasn't too surprised by the sales volume, but it was enjoyable.
I'm sure most people were as charmed as I was by your big wash picture. It's guaranteed to put a smile on the grimmest of faces. Can you share some interesting details about that one
E: To be honest, there were some cries in the name of animal rights from some people as well. Not everyone understood the humor of it.
Your work is dark, sexy and charming at the same time. Angelic beauties and hell demons, ecstatic color bursts and foggy places where death lives. It's such a cliché to ask you where you get your inspiration from, but still — I would like to know how your creative process works. Can you tell me about the moment of conception of an idea for a new picture and the process that follows until your vision is finally manifested in material form?
E: Whoops! Most often I just pick a favorite photo from a shoot and at that moment in time I can hardly imagine what will become of it in the end. For me that process is like a meditation, a game. I like this approach much more than precisely planning to create something very specific. All my pictures come to me from dreams, where, by the way, I feel much more at home than in this reality. I like to sleep a lot.
To connect with the inner source of endless energy and inspiration people do various things — religious rituals, extreme sports, meditation, yoga and other spiritual practices come to mind. Do you practice any of these, and, if so, how does it affect your creativity and your being?
E: For about a year now I've been practicing yoga. It affected my perception in a tremendously powerful and positive way.
Yeah, yoga is beautiful isn't it? Is there God? How do you define God?
God is we. We are all little pieces of God. We are atoms of a being which is a God for us. That's the way I see it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I suppose in our bodies, within our atoms there can be universes as well and so on to infinity.
Our Lumina Forum is a bit out of the ordinary in the sense that it deals with stock production on one hand and spiritual and other kinds of self development on the other. Some of our members would certainly be happy to hear your view on the connection between the spiritual aspect of your being and the work you do. How are these two aspects related for you?
E: All I create has very little to do with the brain. It's rather non-verbal. Very often I feel things I cannot express with words, but I can do it through my pictures.
: Why are your answers much shorter than my questions
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E: Perhaps because I'm not such a verbally inclined type of person.
During the 1990s, when you were a teenager, your country was in turmoil; various socioeconomic issues and moral values plunged. Do you think this environment affected your creativity and personal development in a positive way?
E: I'd say I was affected more by the lack of most basic things and toys, even before the fall of USSR. We had nothing then and, as a kid, I was yearning for many things, so I was forced to push the limits of my imagination and create for myself whatever I wanted. Circumstances like this are extremely beneficial for development of imagination and creativity. Thanks to this, I developed an ability to create something out of nothing.
Anyway, the society with its complex issues was never of much interest to me. Since the age of three I was confronted with its disgusting facets and I had started living, and I am still living, in my own world. The Universe that I keenly feel creates for me extremely comfortable conditions for being and makes all my creative wishes come true. In spite of the dark reality of my country, I never had a wish to move somewhere else.
: You said how you feel at home in your dreams and you're aware while dreaming. What about the awareness in this reality? What about control over material reality, raising your life energy and kundalini, and becoming a superhuman? Are you interested in these things?
E: Interested, yes, but I still can't overcome dissociation from other people. I can't accept their stupidity and other shortcomings as something normal. Although I'm perfectly aware of my ability to change people's view of the world, even by a simple conversation, I have neither the wish nor will to do it.
No. I know very well why I am here and where I'm going here in this reality, but I also know what things are like "not-here" and I know many other things that simply don't work here. I miss the place where I've been before my birth on Earth.
So what is it that you're going towards? What is your life's purpose?
There is no such thing. I think it's illusory to set such a goal - creating a hallway for yourself and then walking through without the possibility of changing direction or seeing outside of that narrow space. I don't believe I can explain why I'm here. Actually, I don't really want to talk about it simply because it goes deep into matters of esoteric and metaphysical nature.
Fair enough. Let's go back to Earth then. There are animals in many of your pictures and they look so much like a realistically genuine part of the scene. How do you do this? You shoot them on your travels and then when, for example, you need a zebra in your composition you search through your safari archive, or...?
E: I shoot everything that moves. You never know what can be useful. I also ask my close friends who have a camera to shoot things for me. They know it's important for me.
Is there some advice you could give for people on Lumina Forum and iStock who admire your work and who are at the beginning of their photography career? How does one achieve the level of artistry and sophistication of Elena Vizerskaya in their work or art?
E: I would like people to realize that there is not much sense in copying popular pictures. Try to look inside yourself and to find your authentic expression in there. Otherwise, we are just creating a world of clones in which there will be no growth, no evolution. Thank you.
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Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Stock Images Free Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
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