Rustem Khayrullin

Born and grew up in Kazan. Enjoy walking and traveling.
The holder of 1 Kyu in Kyokushin Karate, black belt in Aikido.
MD, PhD, Honored Doctor of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Rustem Nailevich, what is photography for you? How did it start?

Since childhood I’ve been interested in drawing and inventing. Submarines, planes, boomerangs – I created them of improvised materials from drawings in magazines or schemes that I made myself. At school I took part in the circle of young inventors. We invented everything – from spacecrafts to snowblowers. Interest in drawing led me to clay modeling. I enjoyed clay modeling for many years. It’s a very interesting creative process – you feel the plasticity of the clay, you start modeling and little by little the material takes the form. (assumes the shape). The image comes to life spontaneously, on a hunch and then you just complete it. This is the way children are modeling – at first the idea is born in their hands, and then only in the brain. I picked up my first camera when I was thirteen. I took photos with “Smena”, went to photography courses. Very soon my interest turned to passion. My father gifted me his “Zorki 4”. The room that I shared with my brother was turned into a darkroom. Developers, fixers, piles of rolls of film and dozens of photos covering the walls – the common thing for amateur photographer in those days.

Why do you prefer landscape photography?

I believe that the psycho-emotional state of a man is closely related to the atmosphere of Nature. Remember Russian artists, the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki) Perov, Savrasov – their paintings are filled with motion. The landscapes reflect the breath of natural forces, the pulsation of life, realistic dynamics of Nature. The energy of landscape captured on photo or a painting can have amazing psycho-physiological impact on the viewer causing emotional arousal and inspiration.

You have been seriously practicing Asian martial arts. How has it influenced your photography?

Martial arts as a doctrine is a combination of philosophy and spiritual culture. It is a well known fact that each style of martial arts has its own specificity. In judo you must take the grip and subdue the opponent tactically, in karate you use the force and develop an attack. In aikido you make the opponent attack, blend with his motion and transform it into your own. In photography to capture the moment of motion you have to blend with the environment – to feel the atmosphere, the wind, the smells of nature. In aikido there is a concept of «never-ending» movement. And the Nature is constantly changing, it never stays the same, it is always in motion. You blend with this motion, feel the drive and then you can capture the «Decisive Moment».