The very honest testament of Nina Jambrich, a young photographer from Slovakia, who through her project “Vulnerability” discovered how to overcome the pain and leave her dark place to freely be who she really is.
– How did your path as a photographer begin and what are your ambitions?
It started really randomly; a friend of mine at that time (around 2016-2017 I think) had a camera and she took some photos of me and I was just mesmerised by what a camera could do.
So, I told my mom about this little dream of mine, to have a camera and to take photos. At first, I was taking photos of random buildings, my family, my cats, and friends. They weren’t good if I’m being honest but it made me happy to have something that truly made me feel good.
I was learning really fast and my art teacher helped me a lot because she has friends who are photographers and she showed me some of their photos.
And then it just clicked.
I started taking it quite seriously and to this day, I’m learning new things. I want my photos to be taken seriously in the future. I want my exhibitions to be famous and I want them to make people feel something.
I want to inspire people. I want to make them feel something through my photos and it doesn’t matter if they’re gonna feel sadness, happiness or something else. Because I think that the best photos a photographer can take are those that he is afraid to take. And these photos are truly hard to take.
“Be proud of who you are and that you can feel things such as pain, happiness, love, sadness. It’s what makes you human.”
– How was the idea of project “Vulnerability” born?
If I’m being completely honest with you, I was in a really dark place at the beginning of this year and I was struggling a lot and was asking myself what I want to do with my art. I didn’t want the photos to look cliché, and by cliché I mean “my model is gonna just stand here and I’m gonna shoot her from a lot of angles and I will pick some of the photos I like and post them” kind of thing.
One day I just decided that no matter who I am, how old I am and what people are going to say, I’ll shoot what I want to shoot. And I started taking photos of myself. I bought a tripod, installed an app to my phone and set a timer. And those photos showed my vulnerability and insecurities to the fullest. Some people could feel the tension, the sadness and the fear behind those photos. And I felt free after uploading them on my social media.
– What do you want to tell your audience through your project?
You are your own person. Don’t care about what people say about you, your art, your interests.
As a human being, every person has to go through the stage of pain, where you feel like you can’t breathe and the world is falling apart. But instead of mourning or losing yourself, try to find the strength to do something out of the pain. Create. Help. Love what you want to love, do what you want to do. Be proud of who you are and that you can feel things such as pain, happiness, love, sadness. It’s what makes you human.
– Social media are becoming more and more of a visual content platforms. How do you believe that can increase the exposure and the understanding of the audience of “Vulnerability”?
I think that right now, indie photographers (as I like to call myself and some other photographers) are truly getting where they should be. I mean, there are so many Instagram accounts reposting photos of truly underrated artists and I couldn’t be more proud of where we’ve come as a community.
Sometimes it’s harder because this world doesn’t want to see the nudity, the real stories of people and the meaning behind some of those you call strange photos. I mean, what is wrong with a woman dressed up only in her underwear making art with her body, or with a man who is standing naked in front of painters? We are all just people, craving for some art. That’s what makes us truly vulnerable.
“I think that the best photos a photographer can take are those that he/she is afraid to take. And these photos are truly hard to take.”
“Vulnerability” – Nina Jambrich
–What was the biggest challenge while working on the project?
Realizing who I truly am as a person. It was scary because I was and still am pretty young, and to be taking photos of myself made me realize as an artist what I want to do with those photos and drawings because I was in an art school for 8 years.
Sometimes in the middle of shooting, I’d stop and just bawl my eyes out because it was a kind of an overwhelming feeling; some things I’ve never felt before. It was amazing but scary at the same time, for I could make anything with those photos, I could make any pose I wanted and could make a pretty good job. Yeah, it’s scary even now.
Photography is scary but magical.
– What camera equipment did you use to achieve what you wanted in the context of this project?
I’m using a Canon EOS 1300D, for lenses, I use mostly my Canon 50mm lens, but I have the classic 18-55mm and I like it almost as much as my 50mm one.
I have a really tiny tripod in the whole world but it makes its job and an app on my mobile called Camera Connect. And of course, some filters here and there so the photographs have some depth in them.
– What are your future plans about the “Vulnerability” project? Do you plan to publish it somewhere or exhibit it?
I want to make my future projects based on vulnerability, being insecure, people who don’t fit in, etc. There are so many things in my mind I want to make I can’t even count them.
But I have the best friends and family in the whole entire world and I know they’re gonna help me pursue my dreams. I want to make an exhibition, of course. I want it to be something like a lifeline from where I started doing this project and where I’ll be then. This year I was able to publish some of my photos in my city where I live so I was really overwhelmed and I hope that people will like my photos in the future.
“Vulnerability” – Nina Jambrich
– Any other projects or future work in mind?
Right now, I’m stuck in black&white photography and that means that every photo I’ll take will have an even deeper meaning. So I want to focus on that.
I want to make a portfolio in the future of my photos and work with some famous names, such as Jakub Gulyas (he’s a really famous photographer in Slovakia and inspires me a lot) and others. I’ll try and learn as much about photography as I can.
For now, I’ll be focusing on the type of photography I love the most: raw and vulnerable.
Follow the inspiring work of Nina Jambrich at her instagram page – https://www.instagram.com/ninajambrich/
Images All rights reserved by Nina Jambrich
artCollective Magazine 