I am very pleased with an article in Royal Photographic Society Creative Eye magazine featuring my doll photography. My two favourite photographic subjects are flowers and still life, but - as most of my fellow creative photographers out there - I am always on the lookout for new interesting avenues to explore. The pandemic has severely narrowed photographic horizons for everyone, including me – no more trips to markets to get flowers and vegetables, no more trawling of antique shops looking for exotic props. All this made me actively think of other possibilities, and it suddenly dawned on me that I can try my hand in photographing Ball-Joined Dolls - often referred to as BJD - which I knew of as collectable objects, and also as something that, at the high end, is created by remarkable craftsmen and is effectively a real work of art. – I feel extremely grateful to the wonderful artisans whose work I am lucky to use. A huge thank you to Alenka Amicus, Anastasiya Petrenko and many others.

I am delighted to be one of the judges for Royal Horticultural Society Photography Competition/portfolio category. I was a supporter of this event for number of years and was awarded range of Silver-Guild and Gold medals along with Best in Show award in the recent years. It was very interesting experience to be on the other side and be one of the judges. The panel of judges includes accomplished and known in their fields photographers and botanists with great experience. I did miss competing this year but judging was equally exciting! High temperatures didn't help (how anyone can survive anything above +30C which we experienced today?!?!) but glass of chilled wine at the end of the day helped! Wide variety of styles and photographic techniques ranging from camera-less to glass plate prints! Lots of discussions and voting, unlike with B-word most decisions were unanimous in the end. Have a look at winners of this year and get inspired to enter net year.
Click here to see winning portfolios.