The Inquiry
I was contacted via email last month by a young Russian woman, Julia Chenaya, who requested an interview regarding my Corporate Event Photography coverage. Additionally, she asked permission to use one of my event images on her company’s website. I quickly did my homework on them before responding – you can never be too sure about emails these days, right? Parté, turned out to be an event resource website in Moscow, similar to The Knot in the US. Brides and event planners use their site to find vendors and resources to plan their events.
Q&A and Skype
I agreed, and was emailed a list of very legitimate questions that would be useful to both event planners, and photographers. I replied right away with my written answers. The next morning (my time), we connected live, via Skype, and had a wonderful conversation about photographing events and the differences between corporate events and weddings. She was very interested in finding the differences between how events are photographed in America vs in Russia. It was a great conversation – Julia’s English, while broken and in a Russian accent, was really very good. She admitted that it was her very first interview with an American where she didn’t have a translator sitting by her side, so this was a big deal for her.
Adding Images
After the interview, she requested a head shot of me (which I shot using a self-timer that very day), a few sample images of my event work, and one image showing me “in action” while photographing an event. Because I prefer to work alone most of the time, I have zero images of myself shooting anything – it’s rare that, even when I have an assistant, they are actually shooting anything at all! Fortunately, I had assisted another local photographer on an event just the month before, and she had caught me in an image, shooting “step & repeats” on the red carpet. I called, and she forwarded the image to me right away.
Getting Published
About two weeks later, I was notified that the article was live on their website. I posted the link onto my Facebook page and joked about how Trump’s cabinet aren’t the only people talking to the Russians these days. Julia commented that the interview was the most talked about article in their office, even more so than the American primaries or Trump’s ties with Putin! I have no idea where an article like this might lead, but I have no illusions about getting a call from Russian company wishing to hire me to cover their event in Moscow, but don’t think I wouldn’t joke about the possibility – because I already have!
My Name… КЕВИН НЬЮСОM
Let me finish by saying how exciting it is to see my name written in a foreign language. I feel so… exotic.
You can view the published interview here in English.