Free photo shoot with Natalia Ilina

Photography is all about light - and light is something that photographer Natalia Ilina understands very well. Her style is characterized by pastel colours and a soft touch that almost blurs the borders between photography and the art of painting. Whether it's her cityscape photography of the skyscrapers of New-York city, the wintry riverside of Prague or her haute couture fashion shoots, there is a distinct, unmistakable touch that immediately says Natalia Ilina.

Natalia was born in Moscow, and has worked in Russia, Czech Republic and UK. She is currently residing in London and working as a free lance photographer in fashion, beauty and commercial side of photography. Having started with black and white film, developing the photos herself in her bathroom, she then followed up with studies in fashion and commercial photography. Although her professional involvement is mostly with fashion - having worked with agencies in London, Moscow, Prague and Brno - she also loves travel and travel photography.

So understandably, besides working with fashion photography, Natalia also enjoys taking photos of the cities she loves. "Only after you become a close friend with a city, will it show you its secrets," she muses. "I don't like taking pictures of it's madness during rush hours - this is not the real city; I love when it "sings a song" for me and my camera...showing its more delicate side." She gives similar consideration to taking pictures of people. Her main goal with every picture is not to just create something merely beautiful, but to create a work of art... something with depth and style.

(c) Natalia Ilina

(c) Natalia Ilina

(c) Natalia Ilina

Having developed her unique style of photography, Natalia cites many sources of inspiration - Eugenio Recuenco, Steven Meisel, Ellen von Unverth, Carl Bengtsson, Martin Tyzska, Patrick Damarchelier... all great photographers whose work she admires. Being equally comfortable with studio and outdoors shoots, she nonetheless confesses to a personal preference for a true natural light shoot - her long time quest for this magic moment when the light is just right.

Having worked with many models to create specific concepts in her shoots, Natalia's view on modelling is: "Model is an actor - he or she must play in front of the camera; sometimes forgetting his or her nature and pretending to be someone else - with new character, thoughts, soul. The other thing is to be very plastic, it's always easy to work with models who like to dance, because sometimes fashion photo shoot is like a dance in front of a camera."

In her photo shoots, Natalia has often cooperated with Justyna Szewczyk (www.just-make-up.com), a make-up artist and stylist with an amazing eye for details. From the very first photo shoot they felt like a team, sharing ideas and discovering a common vision in their work. Justyna's motto is Kevyn Aucoin's saying "THERE ARE NO RULES WHEN IT COMES TO MAKEUP". Make up is her way to express herself, to change or give character to someone. She has been working in this industry for 4 years, the experience having helped her to find her own unique style. Justyna believes in hard work to deliver the best results.

Natalia will do an outdoors casual / fashion / portrait location shoot with two WannabeStar members on TFP basis in or around London area. The makeup will be provided by Justyna Szewczyk to ensure that the style will match with the rest of Natalia's current portfolio.

More of Natalia's work can be seen here at www.nataliailina.com