| From Photoworkshop.com Cover Archives  CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF MICHEL'S "SHOE-FLEUR" IMAGESAll images © Michel Tcherevkoff
Of Russian descent, Tcherevkoff was born in Paris and was attending law school in France when a visit to see his sister—a model living in New York with her photographer boyfriend—abruptly changed his career path. "I never went back home,” he says. “Not knowing much about business, I fell in love with the lifestyle more than with photography itself.” Tcherevkoff soon got a job assisting a photographer where he discovered the reality and challenges involved in creating images for a living. “But I also found that I was talented and had a unique point of view,” he relates. After assisting several photographers, he recalls, “I learned what to do, as well as what not to do, which is also very important. I think for a photographer just starting out, it’s critical to work with other people to learn the tricks of the trade and how to run a studio professionally.” Then he set about getting an agent. “I felt that you couldn’t run a business and service clients—they’re two separate businesses.” Tcherevkoff got a great agent who knew everybody, which enabled him to work for top art directors when he was in his early 20s.
Tcherevkoff has never attended an art academy or had any formal training in photography. “I did things instinctively and didn’t learn any of the rules of the game,” he recalls. “My style was avante garde and different than what was going on in photography back then.” He was shooting with 35mm cameras at a time when most commercial still-life photographers were using 4x5 and 8x10 equipment, and he describes his former lighting style as “stark.” He says that clients viewed his work as very good, but perhaps a little too radical. At first, he rendered layouts exactly as they were given to him, “and then, because I was still a little green and unsure of myself, I would do my own version once the art director had left the studio.” As time went on, he says, the tide changed. “Clients started looking at my version of what they wanted and decided it was more interesting than their original ideas. Eventually, they’d say to me ‘here’s an idea, now what’s your variation on it?’” How did he develop his unique visual style? “It evolved,” he responds. “I started to learn that some things worked in advertising that didn’t work in editorial, and vice versa. I developed a look and style that became “signature” in the beginning of my career.” Early in his career, Tcherevkoff enjoyed creating "special effects" by rigging sets with materials like fishing line and wires, and utilized illustrative techniques on film long before the digital age. Tcherevkoff adds that his special effects on film often resulted in a more-“realistic” image than what is rendered with many current computer programs. “Today, because there is a capability to push the envelope so much, images can often look fake." As Tcherevkoff’s style developed, he says, “I had periods just like a painter—I had my sphere period, my perspective period, my dark background period, and my light background period.” Tcherevkoff worked in cycles with special effects or treatments that he liked, before moving on to another technique that caught his interest. He also enjoys the challenge of visualizing his client’s messages, “and then if it’s appropriate, I like going a little bit beyond, rather than taking a layout and just doing it.”
Long ago, he went to a printer who had one of his images on a computer screen, and Tcherevkoff suggested that the image would look better if it were a little greener. “The printer said ‘OK,’ punched a few buttons, and made the photo greener,” he states. “But when I asked him to change the color of the eyes, he told me, ‘we don’t have the software for that.’ That’s when I realized that digital would be the wave of the future.” After this, Tcherevkoff began working with very large, powerful systems like Sytex that had million-dollar software. Then Silicon Graphics decided to develop desktop programs that dealt with the design end of the business. “I received a Silicon Graphic Indigo machine and Barco software,” he says. “I was working with something much more complicated than Photoshop.” Eventually, Tcherevkoff moved on to the newly introduced Adobe Photoshop—at this point, Indigo cost thousands of dollars and Photoshop was under $1000. “I’m going for a graphic look, which Photoshop does very well,” he says. Tcherevkoff is also one of Canon USA’s prestigious roster of photographers called “Explorers of Light." He currently shoots with a Canon EOS 1DS Mark II, and is experimenting with the EOS Mark III. As for lenses, he exclaims, “You name it—I use it. Basically they start with 14mm and go to 300mm.” As for the advent of digital imaging he says, “The good thing is that digital allows instantaneous creativity, but the drawback is also that it’s instantaneous. The brain cannot fully digest everything so fast, and often, when given the chance, I like to look at what I’ve done on the next day. This way I have a clean, fresh perspective on it. The next day I see things I missed the day before, and this allows me to improve on what I do.” He also says that many of his ideas literally come to him in the shower. As for his studio, he says, “I live where I work now. They are two different spaces but my commute is non-existent. In the middle of the night, I can go work on my computer, something I couldn’t do in the past.” But in addition to working hard, Tcherevkoff believes in playing hard. Every weekend, for example, he goes out on his boat. “Just looking around and not seeing a horizon is wonderful,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s sort of like cleaning your hard drive. I forget everything, and Monday when I come back refreshed to the studio, I have to check my calendar for my schedule.” He recommends a strong interest in a hobby to everyone—regardless of profession—“It balances your life between your work and your pleasure. Many assistants I’ve known get burned out because they live, eat and drink photography, and don’t do anything else.”
The idea for Tcherevkoff's new book, Shoe-Fleur: a Footwear Fantasy (published by Welcome Books), began when he saw a photograph of a leaf he had shot for a client, turned upside down on his table and thought it looked just like a shoe.” He scanned the image, added a heel, and that became the first “shoe fleur.” After he put this image into his portfolio, he recalls, “The response was terrific. My agent kept coming back saying, ‘they loved it.’” After a few months, she encouraged Tcherevkoff to do more. He went to the flower market nearby and started thinking about what he could do with the flowers and plants he found there. “I talked to plants in the store, and jokingly said to one that flirted back at me, ‘come back to the studio.’” He began photographing the plants and leaves in a variety of different ways, and says, “it was like a drug—I was hooked.” Tcherevkoff shot during the daytime for clients, bought plants the following morning, and shot images for the book into the wee hours of the morning. “What a rush,” he says. It took only about a year to complete this project, and Tcherevkoff enjoyed every minute of it. “The mechanical part was almost subliminal; I was so busy thinking of a name or what I was going to do next, and creativity completely took over. I thought about things in my childhood, and what type of person would wear this or that shoe,” he says. “The names came from a collaboration between myself, my mind and my agent, Myrna Kresh, who happens to be a fabulous writer and wrote the text for the book.” The images consist of four “collections,” just as with fashion—fall, spring, resort and bridal. Another book is already in the works, and he’s doing some commissioned work based on Shoe-Fleur. Tcherevkoff’s website that’s dedicated to the book, www.shoefleur.com, features a special gift offer. Buyers can get a free, signed copy of Shoe-Fleur when they purchase a 10x12-inch print, signed by Tcherevkoff, which is shipped in a special gift box. Michel Tcherevkoff has never been content to repeat old work and embraces every opportunity to change. ”Life is a dynamic organism; it changes all the time. I embrace life—so of course, I change too.” See more of Michel Tcherevkoff’s work at www.tcherevkoff.com. CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF MICHEL'S "SHOE-FLEUR" IMAGES© Copyright 2002 by Photoworkshop.com |
