17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß

With an extensive collection highlighting the beauty within the ordinary, skyNext has made it his mission to document Portugal’s streets and countryside whilst using his analogue film cameras to create the perfect analogue aesthetic.

Carry on reading to learn about why relocating countries was important to skyNext, why he resonates with analogue film colours and where in Portugal is his favourite location to capture. 

CG: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you started in the photography industry? 

SN: I moved to Portugal from Russia in 2018, already sensing the troubling direction my home country was heading in. I decided to relocate proactively and began working toward obtaining new citizenship. I came into photography from a closely related field – motion design – around 10 years ago. Right from the beginning of my photography career I started selling my work through stock photo platforms. In Portugal, I spent five years studying photography professionally at Ar.Co in Lisbon. I was passionate about photographing almost everything from documentary style reportage to analogue photography on large-format film.

CG: You’re based in Portugal; can you tell us how this influences your work and your favourite location in Portugal to photograph?

SN: Portugal is an incredibly photogenic place. It has beautiful historic architecture, a mild climate, and streets that feel noticeably safe, so much so that in many areas you can walk around with a camera and shoot even at night.

My favorite location to photograph at the moment is the multi-kilometer industrial port zone along the Tejo River in Lisbon. Sometimes in winter Lisbon is covered in fog, and then it becomes even more photogenic. On those days, I grab my film camera and rush down to the river on my electric scooter to shoot a couple of rolls

CG: What’s your intent by shooting with analogue film, is there a message you hope to convey by using this method?

SN: A year ago, I brought all the family photographic films I could find from Russia to Portugal. Equipped with a good scanner, I started digitising and organising our family archive as it needed to be done – it’s our history after all. During this digitisation process I made a significant personal discovery which was that the older the film, the more beautiful the photograph was. Photos taken 60-70 years ago have an aesthetic perfection in terms of colour and tone – like paintings! Moving forward chronologically, it appeared to me that the images gradually became less vibrant ending with Kodak Ultramax and Konica films from the 90s which, when scanned, look like they were shot on a cheap smartphone. Astonishing.

It was this desire to achieve such aesthetically perfect colours, textures, tones, and grain found in old films and photographs that originally inspired me to start shooting on film myself. I’ve experimented with nearly every film format available today, and some of my work has approached this ideal. I’m still exploring this path. Reflecting on why shooting film is so important to me, and whether it’s purely aesthetic, I realized that perhaps as a child I saw the world in these artistic ‘film-like’ colours. Viewing images created with this technique sometimes triggers a deep meaningful emotional state for me, briefly reconnecting me with that magical perception of the world.

CG: What’s your all-time favourite image in your 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß collection and why?

SN: It’s hard to answer the question about which of my photos is my favourite. I spend a long time editing the majority of my work, retouching and searching for the right colours. For me this creates a bond with almost every piece I capture and edit. Well, okay, probably this one is my favourite because it is very successful on stock platforms, and it was bought almost immediately by L’Oréal.

CG: What advice would you give to a fellow photographer who is just starting out?

SN: As for advice I’d give to a photographer starting out today, is the same advice I’d give myself, find and develop your unique style and distinct features that AI cannot replicate. This way you will remain relevant and competitive in the era of AI dominance.

Due to the overwhelming growth of AI-generated imagery, my earnings from micro stock platforms have drastically decreased. This has pushed me back into motion design and forced me to explore alternative income sources. Yet, I appreciate the fact that my photographs are still purchased and appear in different parts of the world. So, even if photography eventually stops being financially rewarding, I intend to continue as it’s an important aspect of my self-expression.

We hope you enjoyed the interview with skyNext and are reminded that even the ordinary can be captured in a beautiful and unique way. You can find the rest of skyNext collection here. Be sure to keep up to date with his via his Instagram .

Don’t forget you can read back on past spotlight interviews here for more inspiration and you know the drill by now come back next month to see who will be featured next!