VOLCHOK Heroes: Bogdan Shirokov
Background
I live almost for a year in Moscow. I was born in a small Siberian town with the most, perhaps, atypical for Russia name - Megion, it’s near the polar region. I lived there for 18 years. I dedicated 10 years to music and 4 years to the visual arts. I planned to be a musician or an architect. As a result, in the 11th grade I got interested in advertising and entered the college in St. Petersburg and graduated with a bachelor's degree in advertising and brand management. That, in general, had a beneficial effect on my further choice of profession.
At the age of 10-11 my father gave me my first camera, it was a simple SLR camera. And that is when it all has started.
I began to shoot everything that was around me: at home, at school, on the street, while travelling. In total, I shoot for almost 15 years. But my professional career in photography began relatively recently: I left the office and began to earn money by shooting less than three years ago.
Inspiration
Now I spend all my time on photos. Even if I don’t take pictures. Now I shoot not as often as before, since recently I began to think more about what exactly I would like to shoot, whom to see on my photos and what to talk about with the visual language. Now, more than ever, I want to make as many projects as possible, study and deal with the problems that worry me. In my free time I try to derive inspiration, go to museums, listen to the music, read, watch movies, communicate with people that inspire me and watch as many image archives as possible, collect moodboards, save what I like. Not long ago, I thought that I’d like to start making music again: this is one of the greatest sources of inspiration for me. I don’t remember a single day when I wouldn’t listen to the music or search for something new. Every day I try to discover new artists for myself and save them in my profile on Soundcloud, Apple Music or VK.
Some time ago I worked in the store OTDEL in St. Petersburg, at that time they were the first to sell «Volchok» clothing. There I saw one of the most, in my opinion, legendary things of the brand - a t-shirt «Youth» for the first time. Also there I met Vasilii. I remember how one day we couldn’t talk because the customers of the store didn’t stop asking to make a selfie with him.
Perhaps, now for me the most interesting project is my personal project, on which I began to work. There are even two ones. I will not reveal all the secrets, I’ll keep the intrigue. It’ll be a great and interesting research. I think that many people will like it, including the fans and friends of the «Volchok» brand. Also among already existing projects, I consider my personal shootings, not related to anything, as the most interesting ones, such as the «Tbilisi boys» project, which I shot last fall in Georgia and that was published not so long ago on the platform of my friends from «Generation Z».
The most cool thing about work is communication, communication with people, and it’s not even about verbal communication. New acquaintances, new people, faces, eyes, new stories - it’s all very inspiring.
Most of all I like to communicate in silence. When having become acquainted with someone and having decided to shoot a person you suddenly realize that words are superfluous. You sum up the dialogue with the photos - this is probably the best thing that can happen.
Random funny story from one of the shootings
Once in Tbilisi my friend and I decided to go and shoot together in the mountains. We’ve prepared, took food and warm rugs. All the time we talked non-stop, listened to the music, laughed. We got on the bus, talking, arrived at a place on the outskirts of Tbilisi, walked a few more kilometers, and finally reaching the destination and getting ready to shoot, I realized that I hadn’t taken the camera with me. Not being taken aback, I began to make shots with the iphone. It was certainly a fun experience, but from that moment on I always check everything thoroughly before leaving the house for shooting. In general, quite often something funny happens on shootings, which is pleasant to remember.
Travelling
I try to get out somewhere, I think it’s necessary for the normal existence of a person living in the city. But, unfortunately, this doesn’t work as often as I would like to. When I was living in St. Petersburg, I was able to travel more often, and it was always very cheap, the closeness to Helsinki or Riga was tempting. The availability of cheap flights from there could not simply leave me sitting still, this is very lacking in Moscow. I would like to work while traveling, but so far I haven’t succeeded. I think that in order to work somewhere far from home, you need to specially plan working trips, think in advance about cooperation and things like that. My next trip, by the way, will be one of this kind. Once again I will go to Berlin and plan to work in Paris.
Music
I’m guided by my mood in choosing music. As a rule, it’s neoclassical and classical impressionism or electronics, techno. My last added artists: Earthheater, Blawan, Schwefelgelb, Arnor Dan.
Top-5 inspirational things
Earlier I almost answered this question, I’ll try to sum up:
1. People and their stories, teenagers with their uncertainty and older people with their life experiences. In general, anyone. I like people with a difficult life, those who have something to tell about.
2. Cinema: French nouvelle vague, independent cinema and documentary genre.
3. Nature: everything connected with it. Spending a couple of hours alone with myself in the woods can be more inspiring than a week-long stay in a museum or an hours-long marathon watching movies.
4. Travel: discovering new countries, cities, places, meeting people. This is one of the biggest sources of inspiration.
5. Music: new musicians or well forgotten old ones. Classics, electronics, indie, in general, I can listen to anything, the main thing is what this or that composition, rhythm or text means.
Dream shooting
Shooting of a dream is always somewhere ahead. I dream about one thing and shoot it, and then I think about the following. I always try to think about something more than what I have now. At the moment I’m completely into the idea of my project and I dream to bring it to life as soon as possible. If we talk about a dream as a collaboration with someone concerning work, I hope to work with the teams of the magazines Dust, Hero, Ansinth, 032c.
I still haven’t managed to visit Paris, I’m really looking forward to go there, I plan to go there in May-June. London, New York - that's all about work. Talking about the places for inspiration, I’d like to visit Reykjavik and Cape Town.
Plans for the next 5 years
I have a lot of plans, I hope to fulfil them as soon as possible, since plans tend to change. What I have now in the plans, I carefully keep and hope to implement soon.