Alina Vlasova
A Russian theater actor turns her childhood dream of photography into a thriving career.
With vivid childhood dreams of both acting on stage and becoming a photographer, Alina Vlasova chose to study professional cinema and theater at Anatoly Vassilyev’s school of dramatic art in Moscow.
After six years on stage, she became disillusioned with the business of acting and had a heart to heart discussion with one of her closest friends who was one of Russia’s most famous commercial photographers at that time.
“He asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and I told him about how at age 13, I was obsessed with being in the dark room, where I was already developing my own prints,” says Vlasova, remembering fondly her earliest addiction to photography. “He encouraged me to follow my heart, and soon I was taking artistic portraits of all my famous theater friends. The magazines went crazy and started to buy my work immediately.”
Advertising companies also noticed Vlasova’s captivating images and for the last ten years, she has worked on many of Russia’s most notable campaigns for agencies McCann-Erikson, Future Brand Menu and Est-Quest. Her fashion, portraiture, still life and fine art images have been published in several international publications including l’Officiel, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Upgrade. In conjunction with legendary jeweler, Cartier, Vlasova’s most rewarding work has been helping a charity to raise funds for children with Legionnaire’s disease. “Our photography exhibit in Moscow encouraged several donations which were enough to start a proper foundation for the children,” she says. “Although traveling to beautiful places and working with famous people is exciting, working with the children and actually helping to save young lives has been the most interesting aspect of photography for me.”
Sophie Parienti
Exploration of the unknown, one sketch at a time…
Sophie parienti’s most recent collection, Send In The Clowns, draws an international crowd during a recent exhibition in indonesia.
orn near Paris, the multi-talented Sophie Parienti has drawn from as early as she could remember. Encouraged by her family to take this passion for art to the next level, she studied Art History at the University of Bordeaux in France. In 1992, she moved to Los Angeles, where she broadened her exposure to a career in creativity with a Public Relations and Communications degree at UCLA.
With a penchant toward subject matter that is everything but ‘usual’, Sophie’s latest works feature Chinese ink on paper; a medium of choice that satisfies her need for meticulous and neat work comprised of multiple patterns. “Drawing carries me into a deep meditative state,” she says. “I enjoy exploring the boundaries of the beautiful and the burlesque, the delicate and the bold in all my characters.”
Practicing what she calls ‘subconscious flow’, she never knows in advance what she’s going to draw. “I let the pen dance on the white paper; one line leads to another. Exploration of the unknown is what drives me.”
