Author: Shminke
My name is Alena Shminke. I was born and lived most of my life in Russia, but over the last years, I have moved to Estonia. Frankly speaking, I’m a newcomer to photography, and I can’t say I was always interested in photography. I graduated from medical university and worked as a clinical psychologist for several years. Although medicine is a far stretch from art I was always interested and tried my hand in different art forms. When I moved to Tallinn I had a lot of free time and since I couldn’t find a job I started to think about getting an education in the field of art. I chose photography because creating visual images is the most interesting to me and I have a lot of ideas I wish to embody. I really enjoy analog photography. I like to shoot on film, to develop films and to make prints in a darkroom. Possibly the most typical genre for me is fine-art and the most of the images you can see on my blog are still life’s and emotional (self) portraits. The personal part of photography for me is the more I shoot the more I feel that photography is something stronger than me. It makes me stand up and act even when I feel broken.
Still life with cotton
Miss the colour
It’s strange to hear from a person who shoots mostly in bw but I miss the colour. I like snow but I really miss colours. We still have snow here and it’s a shot from a summer we had once.
Skyline
Since my father died I believe he can create clouds (I’m ok or sort of). This is a shot of sky I got on his birthday on the first of March.
Wintering
February mobilography
Naissaare tuletorn
Naissaar is a small officially almost uninhabited island (Wiki says from 2011 there are 3 persons who live there… but I can’t imagine it really), which could be visited by a small ship during summertime. Basically, tourists are somehow entertained, because not everyone is interested in walking around the island, which actually has almost nothing … More Naissaare tuletorn
Night is a perfect time
to be alone. Whether you like it or not.