Interview with Diana Cretu

1.What sparked your interested in photography, and when did you know you would pursue being an artist?

To be honest, it happened so out of the blue, that you could say it took me by surprise. I have always been expressing myself artistically one way or another, but until 2003 – 10 years ago already – photography as an artistic activity didn’t manage to charm me in any way. Then one day, without any particular trigger that I can remember, I found myself wanting a camera to try to explore the world of photos. As for pursuing being an artist, hmmm, I’m not even sure I ever did that. It just developed naturally.

2. What other artists and art forms have influenced you and your work?

I’m drawn to many art forms, besides photography. My other biggest loves are music, architecture, and theatre (I go to plays almost twice a week). As for influences, honestly, as much as I admire a great number of other artists (for example photographers such as Gregory Colbert, Kyle Thompson, or Chema Madoz), and as much as I often wish, at least as an exercise, to replicate artwork that I admire, I always end up doing my own things, in my own style. Their influence is more in the direction of getting me to try new things.

3. Can you describe your current artistic process, habits, techniques you have formed?
Yes: turn on the camera, shoot shoot shoot! There’s really not much more to it, but I’ll try to get into a few details. Regarding the camera, I always shoot on manual mode. I’m the most comfortable with it. As for the photo collections, I try to keep them as organized as possible, because by now, I have tens of thousands of them. I always post-process them in chronologic order, so that I don’t lose track of them. I post-process using a painfully old version of Paint Shop Pro, but I am extremely happy with it. The more recent versions were missing a few crucial features, so I never got into them.

4. Is storytelling important in your photography?
Not as much as one might expect. I am a person driven by instinct, I love to tingle the senses, and that’s what I primarily shoot for (pun not intended). However, some of my photos are storytellers, and some others offer a lot of room for viewer interpretation.

5. What are some of your favorite books, poems, authors?
I grew up surrounded by and sunk into literature. I feel a very strong connection to Dostoevsky’s works, I have a lot of admiration for how Jose Saramago’s mind managed to develop any kind of extraordinary scenario into plausible outcomes, and I appreciate the analytical thinking that I learned early on from Agatha Christie’s books. One of the most intense books I ever read was Patrick Suskind’s “Perfume”, and then there was Oliver Sacks’ “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat”, a book that opened a fantastic door for me into pshychiatry and neurology, two things that I feel very drawn to. And if I were ever to write a book myself, I always thought it would be similar to Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Nausea”.

6. Can you put into words the way you have evolved over time as a photographer?
I could much easier put it into pictures. The biggest fuel that helped my evolution has always been feedback, regardless of type, expertise or intention. I never ignored the negative feedback. If you can learn to set feelings aside for just a few minutes, and then process the feedback you receive, you can turn it into much value. I evolved (and still am) little by little, step by step, always discovering new things, always experimenting with whatever crazy idea came to mind.

7. Where do you turn for motivation and new sources of inspiration?
I don’t believe one needs any kind of motivation to do things they are passionate about. As for inspiration, it is all around me, all the time. Many times I just start photographing without any particular idea in mind, and the simple act of photographing leads me into all kinds of directions. The first half photos of any shoot of mine are usually the boring ones. Then little by little, ideas start springing. What if I moved so that the light over there falls right into this position? What if I used this object? What if I tried to shake the camera?

8. Discuss the role of community and gallery showings, etc to your growth as an artist.
Community has to take the stand for this answer. Online community to be more precise. During my very first few months of photography, I was a member of a forum that had a section where you could post your own art. I was pretty shy about my attempts at photography (and quite rightfully), but the people there kept encouraging me, even a lot more enthusiastically than it made sense, and someone mentioned deviantART at some point, a place dedicated to exposing your artworks. So I joined, and ended up being a deviantART junkie for many years. That’s where I grew, that’s where I met other fellow artists from my area, many of whom later became my friends. I couldn’t have grown even 10% of what I did, without the constant feedback and support of the community.

9. What do you think is more important for your craft: passion, dedication, or raw talent and can you elaborate on why?
If I really have to choose just one, I guess it has to be raw talent. Because raw talent without passion and dedication can occasionally produce masterpieces. Passion or dedication without any share of talent can produce a lot of very bad art. If there’s no room for both, I choose quality over quantity.

10. What is a project you are currently working on, and a project you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?
After receiving some requests, I came to work on self-publishing a book with a collection of my photos. It’s fun and I am very excited about this, but my lack of free time is a huge setback. However, I hope I can finish it soon, I really can’t wait.Nike shoes | NIKE