Interview with Dima Gavrysh

Photojournalist Dima Gavrysh's piece "China's Facelift" and "Uganda's Forgotten War" appeared in SLPS XII at McCarren Park Pool and SLPS IX in the Spring of 2007 at Sandbox Studios in New York. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Time, People, Marie Claire, Paris Match and Newsweek. I interviewed Dima about his diversity of work and stylistic consistency, as well as how he managed to capture some unbelievable images.

Is a majority of your work a result of assignments or your own prerogative to visit these places? And if your work is a result of your own interest, what was the workflow that leads from initiation to completion?


Most of my work was not assigned. One clear exception is the story on obstetric fistula patients in Niger, which was done for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). In Uganda, I worked in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF), but the work was my own initiative and was not assigned.


Usually I start by researching the topic of interest before I even get a ticket and plan my trip. I have to go with an idea of what to expect from the country in general and from the story in particular. Once I get to the location, it takes some time to familiarize myself with my surroundings, and in some cases to let the people around me to get used to my presence. While working on the story itself is very important, I cannot say that it is the most difficult part of the job. Preparation for the story and especially the editing that comes after the story is shot are the hardest parts. But all of the above is nothing compared to the effort to sell or show my work.

Stylistically your images are often similar-- tilt shift, vignetting, and heavily saturated. What gear are you using and post-production are you applying to create your affect?


I want my images to be distinct. I often use Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens, which is a great lens to begin with. It produces vignetting along with some interesting white balance distortions and unpredictable exposure twists when perspective controls are used. When I work on my own projects, I always shoot RAW, which is desaturated, not quite sharp, and lacks contrast. I have worked for AP, NYT, AFP etc., and these wires have very strict rules on post-production. I try to stay within those boundaries when I shoot for myself and tend to limit myself only to Curves, Brightness/Contrast, Dodge and Burn, sometimes Shadow/Highlight. However, I want my images to stand out and have a unique quality.

Within the story "China's Facelift" did you have an overall aesthetic that you were trying to show? Your images move from construction zones to traditional temples-- is the facelift multifaceted?


I wanted to show several aspects of the changes that China is going through. Construction is the most obvious part, but I also wanted to show how the country is changing in general, with the growing middle class engaged in office jobs that were unheard of a generation ago. This change is highlighted by some scenes that remain unchanged, like an image of a little boy holding a red flag in from of Mao’s mausoleum.

Do you ever fear for your safety as a photographer?


I have rarely feared for my safety, and usually not in the places one might expect by looking at my portfolio. While Africa is perceived as a rather dangerous place, I did not have to fear for my safety there because I was always working with the UNFPA or MSF. These organizations know how to work in volatile environment, and I did not feel unsafe because they were responsible for the logistics.


I think the only time I felt somewhat uncomfortable was when my friends and I wondered into an unsafe area of Valparaiso during my recent trip in Chile. We definitely looked like outsiders and a random man on a street warned us of the danger and suggested that we should get out the neighborhood. We followed his advice, and got away unharmed. Unfortunately, my gear attracts too much attention, and it is hard to get around unnoticed.

Are there stories or a story that you have worked on that have been so powerful that you want to continue documentation and perhaps create a larger outcome than originally expected?


The story on Chernobyl is of particular interest to me. I am originally from Ukraine and on some level I have witnessed the disaster from the very beginning. I would like to keep documenting the lives of people in that region, and hopefully I will get to see a re-settlement of the area when this region is deemed safe to inhabit.


Also, I fell in love with Mongolia during my stay in the country in 2007. There were virtually no roads in the entire country but many were being built at the time, and I suspect that the country will be changing rapidly as the infrastructure develops. The change will probably be positive as well as negative, and I would like to go back to Mongolia to see how the country is transforming. It is puzzling to imagine that the ancestors of modern Mongols conquered the entire known world and leveled Baghdad about 800 years ago.

You have worked in a 'celebrity-wire' role for the AP, producing images that are drastically different from how you advertise yourself as a photographer on your site. Does your red carpet photography inform your photojournalism and vice versa?


I can honestly say that I do not enjoy celebrity photography. It is just a way to make a living. However, I think that my photojournalistic work influences my “red carpet” work. For example, I once shot a portrait of Heath Ledger that was stylistically different from the thousands of other photos of him, and it looked like the editors everywhere really liked the photo because it was published multiple times all over the globe.

When shooting comprehensive journalistic pieces, do you go in with a story in mind and try and develop that thesis, or do you approach a situation completely open and without any defined idea?


I do go with a story in mind, but there is rarely a thesis that I establish before getting there. In most cases, the destination is entirely new to me and I can not anticipate everything prior to my arrival. Sometimes the story turns out to be somewhat different from what I had expected. For example, I imagined China to be different and less open and was surprised by how easy it was to work there. This unexpected openness influenced the overall character of my work there. The nature on my story ended up being far less gloomy than I had anticipated.


There are a few images on your site that just need some explanation!


The image of the child holding the gun to the head from Uganda's Forgotten war.

Children in Uganda grow up seeing war and violence on every day basis and their games reflect their experience. The boy in the picture is holding a toy gun made of palm-tree leaves to his play-mate’s head in a scarily realistic way. That is their life and these are the only toys these kids know how to play with.


The pigeon flying into/out of the subway car.

I was on assignment for Gamma Press, coming back from New York Aquarium in Brighton Beach area, when two pigeons suddenly walked into the subway car, calmly rode for one stop, and flew out as the doors opened. Luckily, I did not pack all my equipment, and it was one of those serendipitous moments – the right place at the right time.


The hypersurreal image of the horse and the rainbow.

The photograph was taken in the village of Tsagaan Nuur in northern Mongolia. It rained all day, but the sky started clearing at sunset. A rainbow appeared just behind the lake, and one of the horses that was always grazing by the water provided a beautiful foreground for the photo. That shot hardly needed any correction.