From Russia with love - Max Kondratov

"Photos looked like as if they were made in the 30s. I liked it."

Tell us about yourself.

Hi, my name is Максим Кондратов (Max Kondratov), I’m 33 years old and I live in Moscow, Russia.
I worked as a designer and now I want to work as a film editor. At the same time I'm getting a degree in cultural studies and love to play piano and compose electronic music.

When and how did the film journey begin for you?

Perhaps it started when I found photographs that were made by my grandfather. And once, I took his camera Chaika-2 in my trip to St. Petersburg.

Photos that I made, turned out awful, but looked like as if they were made in the 30s. I liked it. But most of all I liked the fact that due to the inability to immediately assess the results and limitations in 36 frames, I have to treat very carefully to what I want to photograph.

What type of film do you usually shoot and what made you choose it?

I like to shoot B / W and prefer to do it on Ilford films like FP4 plus 125 (for its versatility). In the rest, I'm usually happy with any film with ISO 100 or 200.

What camera makes you click?

Now, in addition to Chaika-2, I have a Zenit E. And I'm happy with this camera.

Between black and white and colour film which would you choose?

I will choose B / W, because it gives me the opportunity to highlight the content and make it a bit beyond temporal context.

What lenses do you use?

I use Helios 44M-4 58mm 1.2 on Zenit E and Industar 69 28mm 2.8 on Chaika-2.

Do you make any experiments on film?

I do not perform any experiments on films. I’m satisfied with possibilities of ordinary photo techniques for now.

Max Kondratov