Swan Lake and Bentley

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I had an idea to shoot a car on a theatre stage with a ballerina, but there was no case to realise such an idea. But one day the time has come. I asked retoucher Alexey to make a sketch (based on the ballet “Swan Lake” by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) that I really liked.

In 2020 I took part in a car photography competition. I didn’t win anything, but one of the sponsors (Bentley) mentioned my work in their Instagram. Then I thought it was a good sign and decided to take a photo for the competition in 2021.

Sketch with car and ballerina + part of moodboard

I needed a Bentley. My friend Vano found the car. It was a Bentley Turbo R (1990 year) whose owner was Greg from the UK. This was truly a wonderful contact.

Backstage from the shooting of the car (Moscow) and the hall in the theater (Novosibirsk)

So, we had a car. Initially, I thought of shooting a ballerina on a theatre stage, and adding a car to the stage after it. But I could not find the scene, so I had to shoot a ballerina in a studio. I found Tatyana (thanks to Angelina) and photographed her on a white cyclorama in various poses as a White and Black Swans.

But I still needed a stage, which I didn’t want to take from the Internet. I remembered my friend Timofey, who had access to the stage of The Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. The hall was amazing, and it's my hometown, by the way.

Timofey photographed the stage of the theatre from different angles in Novosibirsk and sent it to me while I was in Moscow . Next, I needed to figure out how to place the car on the stage. To fit the car photo to the stage, I drove to a parking lot near my house and took some test shots of my car. It was snowing, my Subaru Outback was covered with snow and Alexey retoucher said that it fits well into the atmosphere of the ballet.

After that, we understood exactly how to shoot a Bentley and I could meet Greg. The shooting was quick, I also took a few Greg’s portraits on a Leica SL2 and a 50 mm lens.

I forgot to write about the audience. The theatre hall was empty, so we needed to add the audience. I asked my friends to take a photo from the back like they were sitting in the theatre. All visitors were added to the photo by Alexey during retouching.

Finally, all the materials were sent to Alexey for retouching. As usual, we tried to make everything as realistic as possible, that's why I took real photos. The only unreal thing was a carpet. Yes, the carpet was taken from the Internet, because the real theatre parquet seemed too boring for me.

What was the result? We did not win the competition, the jury chose a more natural work (it was lifestyle). In any case, a lot of work was done, I met different people, I was grateful to everyone for their help, and I did not regret.

INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2021:
https://internationalautomotivephotography.com/iap-winners-2021/