Sasha Kurmaz is a juggler, he plays with an art halfway between ironic and poetic that always distances itself from a purely visual reading. In the pictures of this young photographer – born in 1986 in Kiev, just after the Chernobyl disaster – you will never find fiction translated in metaphor, the weak link of many mediocre artists now around. In them you will find heart and brains, that energy we ask from a work of art in order not to feel cheated. And if you really can’t appreciate them, it means you have a problem with your soul’s DNA. (Interview by Maurizio Di Iorio)
Hi Sasha, I’ve been following you for some time and I consider you one of the most interesting up-and-coming photographers of the moment. You’ve switched from a photography that was a chronicle of your life and of the world around you to a more inner photography, adopting refined stylistic features. Talk to us about this journey.
Hi, Maurizio! The kind of photography that I do has always been quite intimate. This is both a chronicle of events that happen in my life and also an intimate part of it. I am not ashamed to show those processes that occur inside of me. I’ve always been open in my work, and opened my private life backstage. I think that honesty is most important, that is the difference between a good apple and a wormy one.
In this latest series, devoted to statues, the explicit irreverence we’ve seen in other pictures of yours becomes subtle and poetic, with a new visual grammar and different chromatic choices. Two parallel worlds or a definitive shift?
“Parallel worlds” – this is a project of mine where I use parallels between internal and external aspects of my life. This study lives itself in two spaces: the external world that surrounds me and the internal, intimate, invisible world. The last series of the statue is part of a collaboration work with young Ukrainian fashion designer RCR Khomenko. This is my first joint project. I don’t love the world of fashion photography, but I was curious to test myself in combining clothes and my sense. I don’t want to just shoot a girl in clothing, but I want to make a story in which the clothing goes to the background, basic emphasis on the romantic plot where the sense is most important.
You have already taken part in some shows. I remember one, organized last year in Milan by Vice’s Serena Pezzato and titled GERM FREE ADOLESCENTS, where you exhibited together with your friends Dmytrij Wulffius and Igor Okunew. Do you detect attention from show organizers and gallery owners?
It was not my first project with the galleries. I received an invitation from Serena Pezzato and Giorgia Malatrasi do a joint project in the gallery Radio, and it was my first time when my photos were sold. I’m always interested to participate in projects outside my country because the situation with the public and generally with photography in Ukraine is very sad. But I can’t say too much, about the exhibition in Milan, because I was not present there, even though Italy is a country where I haven’t been, but I really want to go. I’ve just seen
pictures from opening ceremony. I hope everyone had fun.
The theme of the body and its distortions is always present in your photographs. Sometimes I perceive a will to idealize. Am I wrong?
Yes, you’re right, this is really the main theme in all my works. Naked body, the relationship between people, love and feelings – is the foundation of big part of my works.
If there were an offer, would you ever shoot for a fashion spread?
I already said that fashion is not very interesting for me, but there may be exceptions.
Would you choose a picture of yours and tell us what went on ‘behind the scenes’?
Very often I myself, or parts of my body are involved in the game. But usually I work one, so all that you see on my photographs is a true story.
Tell me about things or people – unrelated to photography – you are influenced by.
For me affect a lot of things. I am very sensitive to the surrounding world. Sometimes affects for me state of weather, sometimes music, sometimes books, sometimes people…
And what about the photographers that affected you the most?
It’s quite a lot of names: Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, William Eggleton, John Divola, David Benjamin Sherry, Dash Snow, Wolfgang Tillmans, Roe Ethridge, Santiago Sierra, JH Engstrom.
Are there any subjects that you absolutely avoid to photograph?
I think these objects are of course there, but I have not experienced them yet.
Your loyalty to analog is very evident. What does your equipment consist of?
I really love film. When you shoot on film you feel that you create “something”. Film teaches me to think before you shoot, the film makes me more restrained and makes me appreciate every shot. It’s very important, digital camera can’t give it. I am now using a simple little film camera Pentax Espio, she is very compact, which for me is very important, I always carry it.
Do you have any new projects that you’re working on right now?
Next month I go to Donetsk, it’s a eastern part of Ukraine. This is an old industrial city, very colorful and distinctive. Throughout the month I’ll be working with 7 photographers from another country, curated by Boris Mikhailov. This will be a special project on the local environment. For me it’s valuable experience working with one of the most important Ukrainian photographers.
Who is the colleague of yours whose interview you’d like to read on Disturber?
My friends (synchrodogs) already given interview for your magazine 
But lately I see a lot of exciting new photographers from the territory of former Yugoslavia, especially Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia. I really like these countries, and I would like to make a trip there.
