In Celebration of the Eerie - Photography by Arseniy Mizhenskiy

Photographer Arseniy Mizhenskiy's (@arseniusanomalius) images appear like still scenes from a movie. Think Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch or Robert Eggers. His diverse portfolio spans street photography, landscape and portraiture, and one quality these photos have in common is an eerie atmosphere, as if revealing truths we can't point a finger to but intuitively understand.

Inspired by landscapes, especially of his home country Greenland, Arseniy seemingly brings the dark side of the moon to the fore through his photography. Arseniy's work has been featured in the magazine previously, and in this interview, we talked to the artist about his photography background, creative process and more.

Hi, Arseniy! Can you tell us a bit about yourself, when you started with film photography, and what keeps you shooting on film now?

My first try of film photography was in my early school time, as I remember it was with Lubitel and Smena cameras. At that time I tried to develop film myself and also made photos with photopaper, etc. After that there was a long delay until I started shooting film cameras again.

The more serious attempt happened around five years ago. Thanks to my friend, I opened myself to multiple exposure. I bought an Pentax ME Super camera (still using it) and started my experiments.

What makes me keep shooting is the atmosphere of the analogue process and the unpredicted results. Actually, I see it as a great plus. That you expose a film and not see the results right away. You can keep this film for a long time, forget the things you've shot, and later in time, after several years develop it and get a surprise. It's like a time capsule, or teleportation that makes me dive into the past.

How do you choose your subjects?

I don't think about shooting subjects now. I'm mostly led by mood and inspiration. I work within a wide spectrum, from street photography and minimalistic landscapes, to multi-exposure and classic portraits. I have no specific aim except the experimental aspect.

What's your go-to film photography gear and do you have film stocks/cameras you still want to try?

For now I have plenty of different cameras, filters and stuff. More than 20 cameras are in my arsenal. But now I understand that it's too much. Of course its nice to switch between different brands and gear but now I try to limit myself in that.

I've noticed that the more limited gear I have, the more focused and creative I am. My other cameras are mostly for emergency cases, like breaking, damaging etc. Most often I use the Pentax ME Super, Olympus OM series, some Soviet epoch cameras like the Fed Mikron, Zenit and a bunch of lenses from Zuiko and Takumar, Helios to Jupiter and Tair.

Do you shoot exclusively on film or do you also dabble in digital photography?

I do some digital photography, not so often though. Mostly to make a duplicate of a film photo for emergency cases. Of course some digital stuff is much more easy to make than analogue ones, night long exposure shots, for instance. But I am much happier when I get good results with film cameras.

Are there projects you've been up to recently, whether related to film or not, that you want to share?

Not so many projects I'm into, especially now. I've participated in some exhibitions, international photo collaborations. The main project for me before and now is to support my music that I create with the visual base of analogue photography. And as it's not commercial stuff I do it for my personal satisfaction and mood.

That doesn't mean that I'm not open to creative projects with other people. So I welcome everybody who has ideas and wishes.

Many thanks to Arseniy for sharing his work with us! To keep in touch, visit his LomoHome and check out his music on Soundcloud.

written by sylvann on 2023-04-30 #people #places #cinema #greenland #pentax-me #arseniusanomalius