A True Professional
By Marina Kochetova
We all strive for something new, especially in spring. But where can one find novelty when the weather refuses to settle and the mood remains unstable? And yet, it is possible to discover something new in the old — in photographs, for example, if we look at them from a different angle...
In the gallery of human destinies presented in my collection of essays, a worthy place belongs to Alexander Korolkevich — a master of unique photography and simply a good person. Sasha is not a cult figure, yet his творчество is a gift to everyone who knows him. At the same time, Korolkevich does not work as a photographer. So how has his life unfolded? Let us take a look.
He was born in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s, eighty kilometers from Minsk. From the age of seven he lived and studied in the capital of the Byelorussian SSR. There he attended numerous clubs and activities: football, chess, freestyle wrestling, music (piano), hockey, cycling, and later basketball. Every summer he spent at his grandmother’s farmstead, delighted to communicate exclusively in Belarusian (incidentally, Belarusian language and literature were his favorite school subjects). Life on the farm was very different from life in the capital. Sasha happily gathered flax and enthusiastically helped his grandmother with household chores. There was a real wood-burning stove in the house, and everything was cooked in it. Pancakes, for example, were sprinkled with sugar, creating an unforgettable country treat — crème brûlée of the farmstead sort! They smoked meat there as well. But the favorite food of his childhood was machanka — a thick sour cream sauce with cracklings... Not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy such dishes regularly in childhood!
After receiving his high school diploma in 1985, he easily entered the then-popular Radio Engineering Institute, Faculty of Automation and Telemechanics. Physics won over languages. A capable and versatile young man, he studied well. But after his second year came military service. It was the very height of the war in Afghanistan. Fortunately, he was sent not to Afghanistan, but near Leningrad, to the Air Defense Forces. They were responsible for supporting aircraft landings at a military airfield. In 1989 he returned to Minsk and resumed his studies at his home institute. After the army, the young man’s interest in music grew stronger. The whole country was going crazy over the songs of Laskovy May, but the serious-minded Alexander preferred Aquarium. After graduating as an electrical engineer, he immediately found work connected with personal computers and programming. It was the first year when mandatory state job placement had been abolished. Everything in Sasha’s life was going smoothly.
He arrived in Canada in 1996, though he had begun thinking about moving in 1994, when he also decided to take English courses. His first winter in Canada was very cold, and the buses were not running: the drivers’ strike was in full swing. So Alexander walked to his first interview through the мороз. Fortunately, it was only an hour’s walk. He had no money for a taxi. He warmly remembers his English teacher at St. Patrick Adult School, where many immigrants from Eastern Europe studied the language. The teacher’s optimism influenced his positive view of the future. And Sasha found work in his field almost as easily and quickly as he had in Minsk.
Early that same autumn he went on his first business trip — to Finland, where he had never been before, although he had once lived relatively close to Scandinavia. His job was to implement new equipment in which he was already a specialist. Later came regular business trips to the United States (Boston, New York, Chicago), Singapore, and beyond... And so it continues to this day! Over the years, the company has changed its name six times. Sasha has grown to the highest professional level, and layoffs always pass him by. Why? Because he is a true professional! A person who has attained professional mastery. He loves his work, which constantly brings him new projects, improved technologies, and new colleagues. Modest, reserved, and dependable, he has earned the deep respect of those around him through his punctuality and conscientiousness. He may seem laconic and sparing with emotions, but he is generous in kind and selfless deeds. He has a strong-willed face and very kind eyes. Is it a mask, or the face of someone who has reached the highest level of professionalism both in his work and in his hobby? Is this not what a real man should be like?
And what does photography have to do with all this? The answer is that Alexander Korolkevich is also a professional in this field! Sasha has been engaged in photography since the age of twelve. Several years ago, his interest in photography reached its peak... then he even put his camera aside for a while... but only for a while! His unrealized dream of becoming a professional photographer has never left this gifted self-taught master, whose astonishing photographs are admired even by recognized professionals in the field.
Today, everyone takes pictures. It may seem that there is nothing difficult about it. Everyone dances too, yet ballet is a great art. It is one thing to dance at a party, and quite another to be a performer in a ballet company. Everyone cooks food too, but how many can boast of being invited to work as a chef in an elite restaurant? Pressing a button on a smartphone is simple enough; creating a photographic masterpiece is something entirely different... And the matter is not in the camera itself, whose quality affects only the level of sharpness. The secret of a masterpiece lies in the photographer’s ability to compose an image. The law of composition is the golden ratio. Sasha knows this secret. How? Natural talent, years of practice, a desire for self-improvement, and a wish to bring goodness to people. Sasha takes photographs while traveling. He has always loved photographing nature. He honed his skills through trial and error, preferring to figure everything out independently, without anyone’s hints and without theoretical knowledge from textbooks. He photographed everything for the sake of experience. He did not try to learn from someone else, but searched for his own path. Today Korolkevich’s archives contain more than 50,000 of his photographic works! He never deletes anything, because a moment cannot be brought back. What he does with his magical art helps one enjoy a moment even twenty years later! Photographs activate memory more strongly and more quickly than text. Now imagine how much time this takes if creating each high-quality photograph requires half a day! A true photographer is able to see what ordinarily remains unseen.
This talented man does not engage in self-promotion, does not organize exhibitions, does not take part in competitions, and never sets himself the goal of showing off. He is not a commercial person (in the best sense of that phrase), but a humble servant of the art of photography. Yet for friends and acquaintances he skillfully shoots video, being an excellent cameraman capable of accomplishing the super-task: conveying the atmosphere of the moment. I have seen him at work, watched how he, optimally focused on filming, creates clips. His works possess a mysterious magnetism. In his photographs and video clips he manages to convey the trembling of leaves, the ripples of a lake, light and darkness, a breeze and a hurricane, a slow step and a mad gallop, jubilation and horror, the softness of velvet and the fluffiness of fur, the gloss of silk and the cold gleam of metal, the play of precious stones and the turbulent movements of soul and body... A love of life and creativity, the ability to rejoice in any of its manifestations, the capacity to notice little things and nuances, an interest in details, and the need to share his delight — these express the essence of Alexander Korolkevich, creator of incomparable clips and photographs. Psychologists believe that the feeling of joy arises through active perception of joy in small things. And the most precious thing in life is kind memory, for it makes each of us better, kinder, and more generous toward others.
Follow the example of Alexander Korolkevich: if you truly want to do something, forget about time and simply do it. The future is always greater than the past. Time and opportunities are best not wasted — they tend not to return. Take life more lightly, and it will treat you more lightly in return. By such rules lives the hero of today’s story — a worthy hero, a true professional!