NZPhotographer Issue 43, May 2021

Creating Fairytales
Interview with Portrait
Photographer Karolina Ferbei
KAROLINA, TELL US ABOUT YOU AND YOUR
JOURNEY WITH PHOTOGRAPHY!
I was born to a Russian family living in Kazakhstan. I
moved back to Russia with my parents at the age of
10, although I travelled back to Kazakhstan to visit my
grandparents every summer. I studied engineering
and worked as civil engineer for 11 years, moving to
New Zealand to continue my studies in engineering in
2017.
My dear partner gave me a Nikon D3400 as a birthday
present in 2019. I mostly used it for landscape and
macro photos, photography being just a hobby then.
I was following many photographers and always
admired the joy and freedom they had working for
themselves.
At the end of 2020, I felt really unhappy at my full-time
job and knew it was time to do something on my own,
something which gave me the freedom to express
myself. The phrase “If you try you have two options
– it will work out or it won’t work out but if you don’t
try, there is only one option” was going around my
mind all the time so I knew I must do it. I tried to paint,
even having my work in a gallery exhibition, but I soon
discovered photography is where my heart lies.
During this time of knowing I wanted to do something
creative, an advertisement caught my eye for an
online course led by a top Moscow photographer
who specialises in creative women portraits. I dived
into this world of fairytales and creativity, also buying
a new camera, the Nikon D780 with 50mm lens, the
course blowing my mind and setting me on the right
path.
Just 5 months after I got into creating photographic
art portraits, Nikon NZ shared my work on their official
Instagram and Facebook pages. The same afternoon,
a chair of the Tauranga Photographic Society called
me and asked if I would be a speaker at one of their
meetings, discussing my portrait photography.
Later, I wanted to participate in a local exhibition in
Tauranga organised by a successful local landscape
photographer - I was declined due to the exhibition
being for beginners only, the organizer telling me
“you are not a beginner at all” which I found really
flattering. She asked me to be part of her workshops
instead and to teach portrait photography in the near
future.
I’ve also participated in ‘the 35 Awards’ online
photography competition which has more than
100,000 participants around the world - my photo
passed 2 voting stages entering the final stage which
only 3% out of the 100,000 photographers achieve.
Since I’ve only been doing my portrait photography
for 6 months I think these are tremendous results!
10 May 2021 NZPhotographer