My name is Oleksandr Shapovalov. I was born in Mariupol, Ukraine, and since 2022 I have been living and working in Germany.
I am a fine art photographer working with movement, time, and perception as the core elements of my visual language. My photographic journey spans more than seventeen years and has gradually led me to an authorial approach in which images are formed directly in the moment of contact with reality, without later digital manipulation.
My visual thinking developed through diverse photographic experiences. I began with reportage photography, where I learned to sense the moment and respond intuitively. Later, working with motorsport photography, I gained a deep understanding of dynamics, rhythm, and temporal tension. At the same time, my studies of color and composition at art school shaped the foundations of my artistic vision.
Over time, I felt increasingly constrained by traditional photography. I became more interested in conveying how the world feels rather than how it appears. The work of Saul Leiter played an important role in shaping my sensitivity to color and light as independent carriers of mood. I am also deeply inspired by Impressionist painters, whose work focused on experience and atmosphere rather than precise representation.
A turning point came when I realized that photography could function not as an image, but as a state of perception. In my current practice, movement, layering, and time are brought together in a single, intentional act of photographing, with the final image formed directly in-camera. Preserving immediacy is essential to me — capturing the moment where sensation precedes interpretation and the gaze remains open and unfiltered.
In recent years, nature has become central to my work, with trees at its core. I perceive them as living beings that carry memory, silence, and a quiet, enduring presence. Through photography, I explore the fragile and often overlooked connection between humans and nature — a connection rooted in childhood perception but eroded by speed, rational thinking, and distance. My work reflects a deep concern for preserving this relationship and fostering a more attentive and respectful way of relating to the natural world.
My images are not explanations or narratives, but invitations to direct experience. I aim to create works that return the viewer to a primordial, almost childlike and shamanic way of seeing, where nature is encountered as a living, vulnerable, and sacred reality.
Thank you!