Vrag Interview in ELLE girl Korea ♥

– About yourself (including age, occupation)

I am a 24 year old fashion photographer based in London. Currently I am a student and I am doing a Business Law course and also working on many creative art projects.

– What made you want to start your own magazine? What is the idea behind the magazine?

My friend Mona and I decided to make a magazine where we would be able to show everything that we like! We wanted for it to be like a visual diary, without much text, where we could share our digital and analog experiments and where other young artists would have an opportunity to exhibit their work online. We wanted to focus on photography, fashion and art, but the main concept was freedom of art. We also wanted for it to be an international magazine which would include contributors from around the world without the limitation of a language barrier.

– Which magazine or books were you inspired by when you started Vrag? Role model?
There were many magazines that I read and admired which each had an influence on the layout & style of VRAG.

– How many people work together? any part (photo, design, editing)

Our team consists of me, Masha Mel (editor-in-chief), Joseph Race (web master), Ulian Goldman (art editor) and Tess Yopp (fashion stylist).

– Do you have commercial income?

At the moment we don’t have any commercial income, we are trying to develop more and we hope to produce a printed edition this year.

– Main contributors
We have many contributors from around the world and we also have regular interviews and features on artists/photoraphers in our blog.

– Any particularly nice memories about certain shootings you did?

I am originally from Russia and it is always nice to work with Russian beauties from agencies. They are young and funny. I love to create something with my hands – props, decorations – to use in a shoot or desperately running around London the day before, trying to find a particular item such as a flamingo toy or an Indian nose ring. Haha – that happened many times!

– What are you inspired by?

I am inspired by books, magazines, films and creative people. Tumblr is also a good inspirational source.

Being a woman in the fashion photography industry [which I gotta say is mostly male-dominated], do you find you have a different perspective? How do you deal with this?

I think if you are talented and hardworking it doesn’t really matter if you are a woman or a man. I like bright colors and girly things in fashion photography. The way that women photographers work with female models is very different to men, it is more soft and playful. It is probably how we depict ourselves in their poses, clothes and mood.

– Best editorial? (please send the images too)

One of my best editorials is called ‘Russian Dacha’, which I did for VRAG. We shot it last April near Moscow. This is a typical Russian country house. I decided to depict the calm mood and the midday sun of this amazing place.

– Artist, Photographer, Stylist, whoever are in creative industry you would like to work with?

There are so many people I would like to work with in fashion photography.

– Your dream magazine is going to be like the ______ (ex. vogue Paris,Lula, etc.)

I want my magazine to be different from every other magazine!

– Next plan
Work, work and work!

– What would be some advice for somebody young and starting out magazine publishing?

Look at what’s our there, get inspired! Come up with a great name and find some amazing work to publish!