Interview with:
Michal Köpping
Where are you born and when?
East Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. On the 25th of February. Just like George Harrison. Only 33 years later.
Where do you live?
Milovice, Middle Bohemia, Czech Republic, North East of Prague. A small former garrison town and army base with a vast war games shooting gallery. It looks a bit still like a dump even 30 years after the Soviet occupant troops left it. For incurable romantics with immense imagination only.
When and how do you start your path in photography?
Easy question, hard answer. Probably in my twenties. I have started randomly and carry on the same way.
Who were the three photographers that inspired you at the beginning and who are the three ones that inspire you now?
Please add links to the pages where the images are shown.
Since ever I have been inspired by Jan Švankmajer, Czech surrealist. A big shot amongst those, who know. Later on by Bohuslav Reynek, a fabulous, gorgeous and highly underrated graphic artist. Finally by Christian Coigny, a Swiss photographer combining almost religios grace with open erotic.
Did you go to a school or are you a self-taught?
Autodidact.
Do you make photography as a living?
Just in a way. A small part only.
What do you like in photography, what is your motivation?
As I am not a talented novelist, fine art painter or musician, I have become sort of a photographer. Photography is exactly the right kind of activity for people like me – unable to practice art but able to operate a camera and get some acceptable results out of it. My motivation is the pleasure of creating. The fun of it.
What do you want to express or arouse in those who watch your images?
I don’t know. I do it for myself. What the people say is that behind any image I do they can imagine stories. A lady once told me: “Some nudes in general are like product photos, absolutely perfect and boring. But behind your nudes there is a story I can think up."
What are your preferred moment(s) in the creation process?
The activity of creating itself. The best par is when I cease to think or construct anything, I just compose the image in my head and then push the trigger.
What are your three most representative images, and why?
Please add links to the pages where the images are shown.
I can’t tell. I have never thought about it.
What equipment and/or techniques do you use?
It is not a matter of brands/lenses, it is mostly about analog/digital, preferred light (natural/flash), how much post-production, etc.
Since ever I have used a Pentax camera. Started with 35mm SLR Pentax MZ-5 and in about 2008 moved to Pentax DSLR cameras, currently Pentax K-1. I’ve loved them. They are slow, not absolute up-to-date, state of the art and hi-tech like Pentax’s competitors, but taking pictures is not a competition. I am a patient person. I hate strong digital postproduction, all the portraiture filters etc.
How and why your work as changed since you started?
The more you photograph the more your work moves on. Or should move on. It depends. Technologies can change it, too. I do not belong to new technologies lovers, I am an old fashioned bloke. I do what I can and the best way I am capable to do it.
What do you think about the fact that nowadays photography is mostly enjoyed on the Internet?
People of the Internet age are really bored. Only images can give them some stimulus or perhaps a bit of very low excitement. Everything in this world they find boring. Everyone has been everywhere and have seen anything. The only way to kill their boredom is to gaze into their smartphones and browse through their messengers and social media platforms. The young ones watch Instagram pictures all day long at the pace of 3 images per second.
Why did you decide to join the nudeartzine project?
I was addressed by the fabulous and generous Ugo Grandolini. Ugo thinks my images are worth it. He is a magnanimous guy!
Would you have an insight or advice to give to whomever is watching your work and wants to learn photography?
Do what you like as long as it does not hurt or harm anyone. Reflect your work. Always think about the work of others you admire like “this is the kind of way I would love to develop in my own manner”. Never think of it as “this is what and how I am gonna do that”.
What are your plans in the future?
As Jan Švankmajer said: “I just want to hold out and survive my life."
On what page our readers can find more of your work?
Registered users can go here:
https://flickr.com/photos/152632759@N08/
My sort of diary (the ordinary) is here:
https://www.instagram.com/orwochrome_ut18/
Would you like to add something else?
Not really...
Books by Michal Köpping
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