Satellite Voices

Moscow / Русский

Daniel Polevoy

January 26, 2012

The award winning photographer and graphic designer talks about his inspirations and synthetic contemporary art

• Text by Kemal Tarba

The 25-year-old photographer Daniel Polevoy was originally interested in jurisprudence, studying law. He made the leap into photography after experimenting with graphic design. Daniel's work can be found in various magazines including Trends Now (USA), Augenblicke (Berlin) and BigMag (Moscow).

Satellite Voices: How do you describe your work?
Daniel Polevoy: My collages are sometimes accused to have a lack of ideas. Yes, my relationship with my collages is a bit different from the general author's attitude to their own work. For me it is not contemporary art, but just cool pictures. However my images perform their main task: people look at my collages and smile.

SV: What do you enjoy most about what you do?
Daniel Polevoy: I really like the fact that my images evoke emotions. And most of the time, these are positive emotions. I do not believe in the power of modern art. Contemporary art feels synthetic. Many artists try to impress their audience by the complexity of the composition, the size of their work or performances. But emotions disappear. People forget them. I try not to forget about emotions and create images with depth.

SV: What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Daniel Polevoy: It is a wonderful phrase from the movie "Amelie" by Jean-Pierre Jeunet: "If the finger points to the sky, only a fool would look at the finger." I think it's a very good advice.

SV: Top tips to have a great winter?
Daniel Polevoy: The main thing is not what happens outside (snow, rain, sun), but happens inside each one of us. I want to advise people to be a little kinder. Kindness and love will save the world.