Name of Artist:
Dina Belenko
Dates of Artist's Life:
born October 12th
1. Personal Background:
Dina Belenko is a top-selling still life photographer. She says that the best phrase to describe her is "my name is Dina and I tell animate stories about inanimate objects." After graduating from high school she received a humanitarian education, which was useful to her, as a photographer, in the technical part (the basics of image processing and prepress) and in the creative part (inspirational courses literature, aesthetics and cultural studies)
2. Style:
Most of Dina Belenko's photographs include kitchen implements, food like doughnuts, cookies and fruits, and plenty of flour. She tries to find something interesting and adventurous in everyday objects. She gathers whatever she can find in her household. She uses a lot of color and shapes in her work.
3. Philosophy:
Every object contains a kind of "folded story" inside itself. Things can tell what they saw, who held them, who accidentally broke them, and who lovingly gathered up the pieces and repaired them. They keep a sense of human presence, something invisible but clear. Dina Belenko is trying to find these things and capture them.
4. Influences:
The thing that inspired Dina Belenko the most to become a photographer was the feeling of control. After a while of photographing flowers, clouds etc, she got tired of mindless pictures and tried to arrange composition by herself. She started to take photography more seriously, started to think about what she wants to say with her pictures, to plan shootings, draw sketches and pay attention to minor details. She began to control more and more aspects of her work. She found out that what interests her lies not in tracing some events and retelling stories of some happenings, but in creating tales of her own and the easiest way to do this is when you have control over all the objects in your shot.
Dina Belenko
Dates of Artist's Life:
born October 12th
1. Personal Background:
Dina Belenko is a top-selling still life photographer. She says that the best phrase to describe her is "my name is Dina and I tell animate stories about inanimate objects." After graduating from high school she received a humanitarian education, which was useful to her, as a photographer, in the technical part (the basics of image processing and prepress) and in the creative part (inspirational courses literature, aesthetics and cultural studies)
2. Style:
Most of Dina Belenko's photographs include kitchen implements, food like doughnuts, cookies and fruits, and plenty of flour. She tries to find something interesting and adventurous in everyday objects. She gathers whatever she can find in her household. She uses a lot of color and shapes in her work.
3. Philosophy:
Every object contains a kind of "folded story" inside itself. Things can tell what they saw, who held them, who accidentally broke them, and who lovingly gathered up the pieces and repaired them. They keep a sense of human presence, something invisible but clear. Dina Belenko is trying to find these things and capture them.
4. Influences:
The thing that inspired Dina Belenko the most to become a photographer was the feeling of control. After a while of photographing flowers, clouds etc, she got tired of mindless pictures and tried to arrange composition by herself. She started to take photography more seriously, started to think about what she wants to say with her pictures, to plan shootings, draw sketches and pay attention to minor details. She began to control more and more aspects of her work. She found out that what interests her lies not in tracing some events and retelling stories of some happenings, but in creating tales of her own and the easiest way to do this is when you have control over all the objects in your shot.
5. Sources
Dina Belenko's photos: My photos:
6. Compare and Contrast
- For the first image I didn't have enough cups that looked the same, so I chose to only use 6 cups instead of 12, so it would still look like a clock. It was hard to be able to get the details (liquids looking like they're moving) on camera, while paying attention to the angle and lighting, the way Dina Belenko did it. I tried to add some Filters to make it look more similar to hers, but it still doesn't look as professional.
- For the second picture, it was hard to find a good lighting. It looked better with the sunlight outside, but it was hard to see how the picture looked while taking it, because it was so bright. I also struggled with the wind, waving the small leafs away, so I had to take the pictures fast. I had asked my mom if she could buy other fruits, like grapefruits, to make my picture look as colorful as Dina Belenko's but she told me that it was impossible to find single grapefruits in the supermarket, they only sold them in big packages. Dina Belenko's image looks much more colorful than mine, especially with the blue background and many different fruits. That's why I decided to use colorful straws instead of the strings to add a little more color.
- The third picture was the easiest one to take, out of all three. I decided to take the picture inside with the light source coming through the window because it was very windy outside and the spices would have been blown away. That's why my lighting isn't as good as hers. In Dina Belenko's image, the lighting comes from all sides, so you can see the colors of the spices much better.
7. Personal Artist Statement
Dina Belenko has greatly influenced me in my work as a photographer. The creative ideas in her photography are very insperational. I admire her for being able to create such interesting images using the things she is surrounded with everyday. I love how she puts different colors together and uses different backgrounds to give a variety of different ideas, which is also very inspirational for me when I'm thinking about things I could take pictures of. I also aspire to have this attention to every detail of her work and how she fills every blank space with something that fits into the image.
Resources
1. http://thingswithstories.tilda.ws/
2. https://www.photographytalk.com/member-interviews/6695-dina-belenko-member-interview
3. https://iso.500px.com/an-interview-with-dina-belenko-who-puts-the-life-in-still-life/