The following is part of a series of interviews launched for Abstract and Surreal photography week in Project Educate 2008.

*gnato is a talented conceptual surrealist with a keen instinct for the bizarre and sublime in his imagery. The work speaks for itself, bold and loud.

Basics and Background

Name and location?
olex sasha gnat... choose one. my very real name sounds like Oleksandr Hnatenko.
location "baustelle betreten verboten" most of the time austria, vienna
or Zolochiv, ukraine (small city near lviv)

How long have you been practicing photography?
i was shooting weddings when i was 8 with an old russian cam.

Do you have any formal training in the arts?
hm don't really know what you mean with this question, but i cant really paint... im learning art history now its a funny thing
and some basics of composition, kandinsky and other serious people... but i dont use it consciously in my photos now.

What cameras are your personal must-haves on a shoot?
camera obscura.
give me a good camera and i'll make a photo... nikon canon mamiya hasselblad sinar leica ...
it would be already ok to have d3 or 5d but im using d70

How did you come to embrace the genres you prefer to work in?
i think the genres came to me themselves.

Surrealism

Do you have a favorite Surrealist? If so, who and why?
hm... my favorite surrealist is my brain when it's sleeping.

What does Surrealism mean to you in photography?
it's like a song you like but you don't understand the words...

Do you find influence from other mediums, like Surrealist painting?
good music.
music... and one more time music... i think i can't photograph without music.

What kind of in-camera manipulations do you perform to achieve Surreal effects and impact?
there are only two of them that every photographer can use: shutter and aperture.

What suggestions would you give other photographers about harnessing light to create a desired mood in their imagery?
use natural light in not natural situations.

Words of wisdom

What advice do you have for beginning photographers?
one of the best pieces of advice i've ever read:
"Kauf dir ein paar gute Schuhe!" (haven't found it in english)
by Josef Koudelka...

What advice would you give to professional photographers in a rut?
Make a "Scheinpflug"!

What advice would you, at present, give yourself 5 years ago if you could reach back in time?
this question was too surreal for me.

What do you hope people find in your art? Or, what do you hope they definitely don't find in it?
I'm already happy when they look at my pictures and think that there's something to find in them.

Ego

Who is your favorite deviantART photographer and why?
there are a lot of good people out there... just one think about 3 years ago there where some photographers ... where i said i
want to achive the same results as them, i didn't know the know how to make such pictures... most of them are not on dA anymore. now it's different. i like some pictures, but
now it's harder to be excited than it was 3 years ago.

the problem in this question... i have no favourite photographer... maybe it's something that helps me to photograph...

What is your favorite image of your own, so far? Why?
it's one of my latest favourite images


it's one of those concepts where you paint before you photograph...

What is your preferred subject (people, objects, places, etc) and why?
people in places with objects in front, on, and around their heads.

Favorite ice cream flavor?
в стаканчике с орешками или пломбир в шоколаде.

If you could be any other person, who would it be and why?
even if i could be any other person, i would be myself.

Anything else you'd like to say?
for this time
Wunderschoen to everybody..
And if somebody have any questions just ask here



#Abstractography is the dAmn headquarters for Abstract and Surreal week. Be sure to drop by this week to meet the artists interviewed in this series, myself, and many other abstract and surreal photographers here on deviantART!