Interview with Michael Dorohovich | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025

Michael Dorohovich is a portrait and documentary photographer. Born in the small town of Uzhgorod in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. Author of successful photo projects in Ukraine, such as “Famous and interesting personalities of Transcarpathia”, “Cultural ethnos of Transcarpathia”, which were noted and awarded on many world platforms. Laureate and prize-winner of the most prestigious awards in the field of photography. Winner of the Year – MONOVISIONS Black & White Photography Awards 2023 (single). Solo climber and specialist in independent mountain hikes (passed through the mountains of the Carpathians, Crimea, Caucasus, Alps, Altai, Kamchatka, Pamir, Tien Shan). He captured his travels and ascents to the peaks of the world in photographic landscapes.

– How and when did you become interested in photography?

I became interested in photography at a young age, when I was studying at the Art College of Arts, and this love for photography does not leave me today. Of course, since then a lot has happened in my life, I have been doing both photojournalism and commercial photography for many years and was passionately in love with the mountains, doing solo mountaineering and managed to climb many of the most beautiful peaks in the world, but in recent years I have returned to fine art photography to which I devote all my time.

– Is there an artist/photographer who inspired you to create?

A little earlier I was inspired by the works of Richard Avedon and Dan Winters, but today I am very inspired by extraordinary people, interesting personalities of my region where I live and thanks to them inspiration for photography comes to me. I understand how valuable it is to preserve their portraits for the history of Transcarpathia.

– Why do you work in black and white and not in color?

Yes, indeed most of my work you will see in black and white. The fact is that in black and white photography there is more mystery, riddles. Color often strongly reveals the whole mystery of the portrait and everything becomes very obvious … Black and white photography gives the viewer more understatement, drama, more reflection on the picture, it penetrates deeper into the soul of a person.

– How carefully do you prepare for a photo / series of photos?

To create a strong portrait, you really need to carefully prepare, especially psychologically. For me, the psychological mood during the shooting is very important, the person’s trust in me, without it it’s hard to imagine a good result. Therefore, I rarely come to the first meeting with a camera in my hands, I start with a meeting over a cup of coffee or wine, then on the day of the shooting the person will be much closer to you and it will be a pleasure for you to work. I work on the Fujifilm – X system, it pleases me with its compactness, excellent quality of lenses and, most importantly, it does not frighten my portraits with its size, people rather get used to you and your camera, the experience goes much faster, which as a result gives an excellent result.

– Where is your photography going? What projects would you like to implement?
There is a war going on in my country right now, even now, when I write this text, an air raid alarm sounds on the street, so it’s hard to plan some projects, you never know what will happen tonight …
I really want to take pictures of the high-mountainous inhabitants of our region, their way of life, traditions, everyday life. In fact, modern technologies have also reached the mountain dwellers, which does not benefit their culture and traditions. I wish you all peace!!!

Website: https://www.facebook.com/mdorogovich