Zachar Rise
Zachar is a 49 y/o portrait and nude photographer based in Israel. We talked about inspiration, beauty, light and role models.
Thomas Berlin: Zachar, you are an artistic portrait and nude photographer who reminds me a bit of old paintings. Did you develop this style over the years or how did you get into it?
Zachar Rise: I have developed my current style over the years, this is not something I have directly started with. I believe I have started developing it in 2-3 years after I have started doing photography. And yes, I am definitely inspired by old paintings, there is a lot to learn about composition and lighting. By the way, many beginner painters use my photos as a source of inspiration and I feel good with this. This way I return my “debt” to old painters.
Thomas Berlin: In addition to the visible perception of beauty and sensuality, do you have a general message that you would like to convey with your work?
Zachar Rise: There are no messages in my works. I like to express beauty, mood, atmosphere – but not messages. I can frequently see messages being overused and misused many times in modern art including photography and I am afraid this powerful instrument of art has depreciated to some extent in recent years. Of course this is my personal perception.
Thomas Berlin: Beauty is a good keyword. The pictures I know of you show younger women who probably most people find beautiful. In addition to this classic ideal of beauty, do you also pursue others, e.g. in series that have not been published? Do you also photograph men or older people?
Zachar Rise: I sometimes do photoshoots of my family, kids, friends, kids of friends - but this is usually for memories only and not for publishing. Sometimes I do publish results of these shots but it is very rare and not common.
It is correct that most people find younger women beautiful and I have heard many times that photographing young women is easy and not challenging. This is a common mistake, in my opinion. I think any genre in photography is challenging and requires hard work if you want to get exciting results. If photographing young women would be easy anyone could become a famous fashion photographer, for example, and obviously it does not happen.
Thomas Berlin: What is a good picture in portraiture photography?
Zachar Rise: For me a good picture has to express the beauty of the model. It can be beauty of face, smile or sadness, beauty of movement or beauty of body, interesting pose, mood; it has to be atmospheric. Good technical quality is a must, good light that gives a picture a volume, interesting colors or interesting monochrome, good composition of course.
Thomas Berlin: When are you happy with your own work?
Zachar Rise: First, when I manage to achieve all the criteria as just described above. Second, recognition by the audience, in a form of likes and comments in social and photographers networks; awards in the same networks or competitions.
Thomas Berlin: Does that mean that you delete posted pictures with a lower number of likes?
Zachar Rise: Well, likes is not the only criteria, I still can be happy with a picture even if it does not get enough attention or likes. I publish my pictures on different social networks and photography resources - and sometimes pictures receive attention on one resource but not on another. As well - sometimes the picture gets a high rate from a professional audience, e.g. moderators or jury, but not from regular audience.
Having all this said, yes, sometimes I delete my pictures that did not receive enough attention. It does not happen frequently, but sometimes it does. I can delete a picture from one resource, but still leave it on another.
Thomas Berlin: Is there a photo scene in your genre in Israel? Can you say something about that?
Zachar Rise: The local scene is not my main target. I publish my works on international photo resources and social networks, without making any corrections particularly for the local scene. Having this said, I definitely think, yes, there is a scene for my genre in Israel, both for portrait and nude photography. I know many local photographers who like these genres; portrait and nude workshops are pretty popular and works are published in networks and exhibited in exhibitions.
Thomas Berlin: Many of your pictures show nudity. How accepted is nude photography in your country and what about exhibitions? I ask because I have seen a wide range of conservative and modern lifestyles on my travels in Israel.
Zachar Rise: You are absolutely right about your perception. Israel is a very multicultural country, and we have very progressive and very conservative lifestyles, and it does not always smoothly coexist. It depends as well on geographical area. Tel-Aviv for example is very progressive, and Jerusalem is obviously more conservative. Anyway, I believe the majority of the population is progressive, so in general there is no problem with nude art, and nude art exhibitions being made periodically.
Thomas Berlin: How much preparation or conception is required in the run-up to a shoot?
Zachar Rise: Usually it does not take too much time. I do not make sessions with complex decorations, or complex styling, so the major part of the preparations is actually looking for ideas of the session and discussing it with the model.
Thomas Berlin: A setting that I often see in your pictures is a dark background and a light focus on the model. Very minimalist and like the lighting by Rembrandt or other old masters. Is that the right connotation?
Zachar Rise: Definitely, yes. Rembrandt is a real master of light and this is an honour for me when my pictures are compared to Rembrandt’s masterpieces.
Thomas Berlin: How can I imagine a shoot with you, i.e. how do you choose the location, how long does it take, what is the interaction with the model like?
Zachar Rise: Usually selecting location is very simple because I do 90% of my sessions at my home attic, where I have a little studio. Because photography is my hobby I do sessions after work – and there is no light outside, so actually studio is the only option.
A Session on average takes about 3 hours. Interaction with the model obviously starts before the session. We discuss the idea and examples of the session, outfit and make-up style. During the session I am instructing the model what changes to be done in posing if necessary. Mostly never starting with no idea, so the starting point of the pose and composition is some example picture or just an idea. And from this point it’s very frequently being developed into something completely different, and the idea of the changes can come both from the model and from me. When I see the model can move and pose naturally I allow it to flow and do not interrupt, till it exhausts. Then we make a kind of process reset and start with another idea.
Thomas Berlin: How do you find the people who come in front of your camera and what are their motives for participating in your pictures?
Zachar Rise: I find most of my models on social networks. Sometimes “friend brings friend”. Their motivation is to have good pictures, most of my models are not professional models, sometimes it’s even the very first experience of posing for some models. I do TFP shots only, so for a beginner model it can be a good chance to start building a good portfolio for free.
Thomas Berlin: Do you have only one session with your models or do you also work with them on projects or series on a recurring basis?
Zachar Rise: Pretty frequently I have recurring sessions with the same models, with some models I keep cooperating for many years. Obviously - when I become better familiar with the model - we can improve the results of the sessions by selecting ideas that are more suitable for both of us.
Thomas Berlin: Let's get to the technical side of your art: You take mostly or completely digital photos, right? Why actually?
Zachar Rise: My photography is mostly completely digital. I have some old film cameras, and once in few years I do some analog shots. However dealing with it is much more complicated, particularly the development part. We have in Israel only few labs that can develop and scan films in good quality, it’s a costly process and takes a lot of time since I have to send films by regular post. And building an analog lab at home it’s a kind of project. Maybe one day I will do that, but not yet.
Thomas Berlin: How do you deal with light? And what is your light setup?
Zachar Rise: I use studio strobes for my photography. For a very long time I have used most simple and cheap strobes, and recently upgraded to some more sophisticated ones.
Most frequently my light setup is a classical Rembrandt setup, I use one or two strobes and one or two reflectors. Strobe equipped with a softbox or sometimes with a beauty dish, indeed all is very simple.
Thomas Berlin: Which camera and lens do you use?
Zachar Rise: I use a Canon 5D Mk4 camera and most frequently a Canon 85 1.2 lens. Sometimes I use 50 and 35mm lenses; I also have an old Carl Zeiss 58 2.0 manual lens.
Thomas Berlin: What does your workflow look like after the shoot?
Zachar Rise: Yes, it’s selection and editing. BTW after the session I share all the images with the model, so the model has a chance to select favourite images. I usually edit 2,3, or 5 images after the session, sometimes a little bit more, and sometimes I get back to the old sessions after months or even years. I use photoshop for post processing, and it can take between one to several hours for a single photo.
Thomas Berlin: Do you only use your pictures on the Internet or do you also print your pictures?
Zachar Rise: I have several images of my family printed at home; all the rest is for the Internet only.
Thomas Berlin: Do you have role models for your work?
Zachar Rise: Yes, of course. I like to learn lighting, composition and colors from old painters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. My modern photographer’s icons are Annie Leibovitz, Peter Lindbergh, Marc Lagrange and some others.
Thomas Berlin: What do you want to achieve photographically in the next few years?
Zachar Rise: Honestly, I do not have any specific plans. I just will continue having pleasure from this hobby.
Thomas Berlin: Finally, let's get to yourself. How did you get into photography?
Zachar Rise: I got my first experience with photography when I was a child. I did some analog photography, very unprofessionally of course. But still I was able to do a complete cycle starting from shooting and ending by developing film and printing it on real photo paper. This hobby resurrected when I got my own kids, I bought my first 0.5 Mp digital camera. Then I started to use the attic at my house as a little studio, built a kind of lighting using halogen lamps and so on, and slowly the hobby developed to what it is now.
Thomas Berlin: Can you say a few more words about yourself, please?
Zachar Rise: I am a data engineer, working for a software company; married, father of 3 boys, will celebrate my first 50 in a few months.
Thomas Berlin: Is your photography a pure passion or is it partly a professional activity?
Zachar Rise: It’s a pure passion.
Thomas Berlin: What do you like to do privately when you are not taking photos?
Zachar Rise: When I am not working or not taking photos I spend time with my family, listening to music, traveling – now internally in Israel, there are a lot of beautiful places here.
Thomas Berlin: Zachar, thanks for the conversation. Do you want to say something else?
Zachar Rise: Glad to participate in this interview, thank you Thomas!
You find Zachar on Instagram and Facebook. Feedback to this interview is appreciated here.
About the image above: This image is one of Zachars favourites. The model is Mia Apis who is a professional photographer. Zachar developed a long time collaboration with her, and he is one of very few photographers Mia poses for. This photoset was pretty much an improvisation, Mia led the session and expressed herself. The light setup were two studio strobes, one with a softbox on the model, another with a snoot on the background.
Zachar Rise: "I like this picture a lot, it's sexy and dynamic, the light and colors are pretty good, it has mood and emotions. The partially closed face creates a kind of enigma and the hair is just beautiful."
