The MOOD Podcast
In The MOOD Podcast, Matt Jacob, renowned cultural portrait photographer, dives deep into the world of photography and the visual arts, with guests from all around the creative industry, across all parts of the globe, sharing inspiring stories and experiences that will leave you wanting more. With years of experience and a passion for storytelling, Matt has become a master of capturing lesser-told human stories through his photography, and teams up with other special artists from around the world to showcase insights, experiences and opinions within the diverse and sometimes controversial photography world.
You can watch these podcasts on his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mattyj_ay.
You can also follow Matt's work on his Instagram @mattyj_ay and his website: https://mattjacobphotography.com.
The MOOD Podcast
Think You’re Not Ready? This Photographer Says Start Anyway - Mitchell Kanashkevich, E091
"Sometimes the photo is the excuse - the real gift is the connection."
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Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel and documentary photographer best known for his emotive portraits, vibrant visual storytelling, and deeply immersive work documenting disappearing cultures and sacred traditions. With a career spanning two decades, his images have been featured in top international publications and exhibitions — but it’s his humble, human-first approach to image-making that truly sets him apart. In this conversation, we explore not just where he goes, but how he sees, and why he photographs in the first place.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The trip that changed everything
- What shaped his early career
- Why naïveté can be an asset when photographing people
- His evolution from hobbyist to full-time photographer
- Navigating commercial needs vs. personal passion
- What it means to give back ethically
- How to build trust and connection
- The role of storytelling, aesthetic depth, and emotional resonance in strong portfolios
- Why originality is a myth
Find Mitchell's work on his platforms:
Website: www.mitchellk-photos.com
Education: www.photographic-process.com
Instagram: @mitchellkphotos
Substack: www.mitchellkphotos.substack.com
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Welcome to the Mood Podcast. I'm covering the art of conversation through the lens of photography and creativity, one frame at a time. I'm your host, matt Jacob, and thank you so much for joining me today, where I'm speaking with Mitchell Kanashkevich, a travel and documentary photographer whose work focuses on those disappearing cultures, spiritual traditions and the quiet moments of humanity that often go unseen. His images, deeply personal and often immersive, have been featured in top publications and exhibited around the world. But what sets Mitchell apart is not just where he goes. It's how he sees and why he photographs in the first place. And in my conversation with him we talk about the moment that changed everything for him as a photographer, how his worldview evolved through witnessing sacred cultures up close, and why emotional connection matters more than technical perfection. We explore the ethics as well of documenting vulnerable communities, the tension between the truth and aesthetics, what it means to carry someone's story with integrity. So if you've ever wondered how to travel and create with presence, purpose and humility, please listen and watch. Mitchell has some really great insights to share. So now I bring you Mitchell Kanashkevich. Mitchell Kanashkevich, I hope I pronounced that okay, but welcome to the Moo Podcast. Very, very well pronounced.
Matt Jacob:Let's kick off with, I guess, a high level question, um, for someone who shoots similar stuff to you and um is interested in, I guess why myself, as well as photographers like you, are drawn to the subject matters and the experiences that we photograph. What is, if anything came to mind, what would be, the most unforgettable moment that you've experienced for your lens? You've been shooting for a couple of decades I know we're going to jump into that, but that one thing that changed you as a person or as a photographer. Is there anything that comes to mind in terms of an unforgettable moment?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Thanks for reminding me. It's been almost a couple of decades. It seemed like it was literally just I don don't know very recent, but yeah, it has been. You know, sometimes you think, yeah, that was just in 2010, you know, and then you realize that was 15 years ago wow, yeah and, uh, yeah, uh, if there was a, is there a?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:the most memorable moment? That's a tough one, because I don't know if there is in all of these years. If there's one single moment shooting, I mean, I think it's really been maybe let's say a trip. A trip, I could say, and like sort of more of an entire trip. The first trip where, yeah, I really kind of things clicked. I'd say it was probably my first trip to India, like I think it is.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:For many, or at least it used to be for many aspiring travel and documentary photographers, india sort of was the place where everyone wanted to go, and I think that there are plenty of reasons for that, because it's just such a such an incredible, vast, diverse country with such a welcoming attitude towards photography. So I think for me, that was that was a really turning point, and when I really said to myself, I, I really just want to be a photographer, you know, like this is something that I understood, then that that's what gets me excited, that's what, yeah, you know, really kind of gets me going. And I think it was a reason why it was such a turning point was because prior to India, like right now, I mostly shoot people photos. That's what excites me, that's basically what I'm about, that's what motivates me and inspires me. And before India was actually relatively shy. You know, photographing people it was like most people probably. You know, photographing people it was like most people probably, you know, who are still relatively new to photography. I would like think how do I approach this person? You know, how do I um, break out of that of my comfort zone? And in india it was just like a hit on the head, you know, uh, uh, people would. And the funny thing was people would say, hey, take my photo, take my photo, you know. So I didn't even have to ask anybody. And then that gets me to think about photography in a whole different way because, uh, you know, a lot of time in the so-called western, you know world we have these more negative associations like but why would people want their photo taken? Why am I intruding? Am I being sort of annoying? And over there it's like no, you're not annoying, come and make a photo, please, come. Come and have some tea while you're at it. So it was a real turning point. And then the subsequent trips there. I think that kind of really changed my life and put my life on a certain track.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:There are many connections that I have, personal ones, because I went to visit the country where I was born, where my parents immigrated from, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Well, it was a country Soviet Union no longer existed. But in that same place, where I was born was now a new country, belarus, and I would go and visit my grandma, my family, there every few years, and during one of these trips I actually met a girl that I fell in love with and I said to her hey, do you want to go to India with me? You know, probably she's going to say no, but it's worth a try. And she said yeah, you know, as a matter of fact, I do want to go with you.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So that was the. India became the place kind of the middle meeting point for me and my future wife, because she, uh, she, yeah, she did agree, and then that's where we traveled and that's where we had a lot of our adventures and really tests, as a couple, I think. And then I figured, hey, after, after we survived so many journeys and stressful situations, she's the one for me, and I guess she might have thought that about me as well.
Matt Jacob:So india is a good tester of anything right.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, exactly, and we're traveling in a motorcycle actually three people, uh, on on one motorcycle for 10,000 kilometers. Cause then there was one of my best friends in the world. I met this guy just in the middle of the street on my first journey. He just said, uh, good evening, good gentlemen, what are you doing? And then then I was like man, are you?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:At that point, you know, india can be challenging and some people are just trying to scam you. And I and I thought, is this guy trying to scam me as well? And then we just started talking about the most random things and I said there's no way that this guy is trying to scam me thinking about talking about such such things. You know such topics. We started, I don't know. He said he wanted to be a model and I thought it was very funny because he was very short and not really what I imagined a model. And then we started talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger and I said well, he was my favorite actor growing up. And they just went into it because he was big in the Soviet Union Terminator and all that. So it was like the most random conversation. I realized, no, this guy's not trying to scam me and he ended up actually really helping me become the photographer that I am, because he accompanied me on some of my first projects and, yeah, we had also so many tests, so many situations where we just wanted to strangle each other, but in the end I really just opened my eyes and really understood that there is a whole different way to see the world, not just through the prism that I was used to. As an Australian, you know, I realized that in a way it was a very self-centered, maybe selfish way, and it was so much of a shock. His approach, you know his approach to life but his friendship, you know, like it was almost overwhelming in a way. But then I understood wow, this is what friendship is about. You know, like when a guy is ready to come and meet you, you ride a thousand kilometers from another town on a motorcycle just to meet you on time and to, you know, to organize everything for you. Yeah, over the years he's really been like you know one of my people who I would call a brother.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So that was India as well, you know, and, of course, my initial body of work. I think that's where really, I became a photographer, because I really started to get more into people photography, which is what excites me more than anything. That's where I really started to understand some of the nuances of actually approaching people dealing with cultures which are so radically different to your own. So'd say that, yeah, in short, which is not so short, that moment is actually not a moment, but um, the the few trips that I had to india, probably from like 2005 till 2008 and I still kept coming back, but I think those really were the years that really formed me as a photographer really kind of shaped what I would photograph. And the funny thing was that after those Indian journeys because I gained this sort of almost overwhelming confidence from people photography, because everybody wanted to be photographed, everybody was open I actually kind of rode that wave of confidence and photographed in a place that I imagined I never would have photographed, which is my home country, my birthplace, belarus, which is a completely 180 degree turn.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:People don't want their photos taken, people can be suspicious. I remember on my first trip, I would use that same approach as any kind of naive hey, I just want to make your photo, I want to photograph culture and portraits and people would be like have you got your passport with you? What are you doing? Are you trying to scam us? So they were kind of. You know. I remember very funny one lady in the countryside. I knocked on her door. There was a girl from a museum that was helping us, sort of showing us some places, and we were together. And then this lady opens the door an elderly lady and she says why are you here? I said you know, I want to make photos. And she said are you sure you don't want to steal my piglet? And the piglet is like you know. At the time I had this very small, beaten up Volkswagen car and the piglet is like half the size of this car. It's not a piglet, it's a damn huge pig.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:There was no way that I could steal this piglet, oh my goodness, which is like, are you sure you're not here to steal my piglet? So, but yeah, but because I was so filled, I guess, with those positive experiences, that was not enough to determine because I and I had already had that shift in mentality that, hey, I'm not doing something bad by photographing people. There is value in it, in fact. And so I think that, thanks to that, I was then able to deal with everything. I think it's very important, when you're getting into that kind of photography, to have a lot of very positive experiences to start off with, especially if you're like you know, not necessarily I wasn't't necessarily an introvert, but I wasn't, like, really an extrovert. Some people are like that you know that they're fine with everybody, they're gonna talk to people in the street. I wasn't really like you know. And so india really, um, gave me almost like a, like a special potion or something you know to, to be able to deal, uh, those situations.
Matt Jacob:So, yeah, yeah, and one thing people learn as they do more and more portrait photography, especially if they travel, is that every place needs its own approach.
Matt Jacob:You know every I mean we don't want to generalize populations, but generally speaking, you get like an energy and a feel and you kind of understand okay, I can kind of say this and maybe I can approach these people this way. Maybe not this way, maybe I need to kind of arrange it a little bit more, or maybe I can jump in, and so I think that's just learned through doing yeah, I think.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think the important thing to that I'm trying to say, though, is that that that is true, but I think being naive goes a long way as well, you know, and kind of, and believing I think it's really that mindset change, that that was important for me, because, again, I think from the West, it was more like hey, I mean, I remember I was making a photo of the Anzac day in Australia, which is, you know, it was the parade of the war veterans, and there was a man with his daughter, and she was waving an Australian flag, and so I thought that's a beautiful image, and right away, I was approached by a policeman asking me why I'm making the photo, you know, and I thought, shit, what a contrast.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But again, because I had been to India and I had seen hey, not everybody is going to treat you like that, you know.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think it's just very, very important to have a positive experience, and then, of course, you can adapt in any way that you need to, but I think it's just incredibly important to understand that it's not a bad thing. You don't need to be ashamed of it, you don't need to seem like a strange all of a sudden, feel like you're a really strange guy, because I had then sort of the capacity to say, hey, man, it's all good, I'm just making a photo. It was a beautiful moment. Who are you shooting for? I don't remember what I said to him, but you know, I'm shooting, I'm documenting this event. So I think that's kind of where it really played a huge role to just give me an understanding that photography can be appreciated, not only seen seen as a burden, as an annoyance. Sometimes many people that you hear a lot of the time people will watch my videos or look at the photos and they'll say oh no, it'd be never possible to do that in my country.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Or try doing that in the US. You'll get whatever, a very negative kind of pushback.
Matt Jacob:But maybe then you can, once you have that confidence you can kind of uh work your way around, you know yeah and find the right approach.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, interesting, you talked about the, that india trip and that kind of seminal moment where you know you kind of realize, okay, this is, this is where I want to go with my photography. You actually didn't talk too much about photography until kind of we just touched upon kind of people, skills and stuff and portraits. But you know, this is what always fascinates me. What I talk about as well is that you know, often we don't necessarily think too much about the image or the images. We think more about the experience and the people we meet and the people that kind of form the whole experience. And I want to read something I kind of paraphrased from your bio in that you talk about the way you like to travel, seek adventure and interact and learn from cultures which are very different from my own. You're drawn to ancient traditions which are still surviving and evolving.
Matt Jacob:Now, that first paragraph that I've kind of pieced together but that doesn't mention photography at all for a start, until you talk about the images that you want to make, which combine a strong sense of story and convey what it felt like to be with the people I met in the places I visited. Photography became a great excuse to look deeper and to make my experiences more intense. So you have intensity. You want to learn different from you, create a story, all of this kind of things that the image emanates from that, from those philosophies and experiences. Where does this kind of deep, deep interest and passion in other cultures and other people that are different from you stem from? Do you think? Why was it like that India trip and the people that you wanted to photograph? Why does that connect with you so deeply?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think you mean like, why the difference? Yeah, why are you?
Matt Jacob:interested in the difference. Yeah, something so different, I think there are a few reasons for that.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think one of them is um was kind of the seed was planted when I was growing up in the ussr. I remember my um at school we had these atlases and in these atlases, I mean, they had probably very politically incorrect representations of different people, but then you'd kind of just have they're almost caricatures. But back in the 80s, you know late 80s I just thought, wow, this is so interesting. You know, like here are these people with their traditional costumes and yet you know, and here are people from this part and from that part and different colored skin and looking completely different, and yet I would only see people like me or something similar around me, because Belarus was a place that doesn't have any, at least back then. It had zero immigration. It was just like people like me and at the same time, sort of the whole manifesto. I'm actually it's funny that I'm remembering it a lot now because I guess those things that shape you as a child they play a role later on in your life not at all racist. That it was all for sort of the proletariat, for the people, and seeing USA as this evil, racist nation, where that's kind of the propaganda they were making. But I think there was something very nice and beautiful in that that at least the ideology was that all humans were equal and that there was something worthwhile in every human right, and so that was like one, one part of it and I thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool. You know, like now my daughter, uh is is going sort of on this trial month in school and I said this this would be my dream school when I was a kid, her age, children of all sort of colors and cultures, and you know backgrounds and and it's fascinating, uh, so that was, that was, I think, where the seed was planted.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But then I think later on, moving to australia, I think it was a very uh, it was, in a way, australia is a bit of a bubble, you know. It's like a very uh, almost regulated. I don't want to sound too critical because of it, because I love it, but, um, but at the same time there was no real sense of adventure living in urban Sydney, and sure, we had now different nationalities and different people, but it just felt so dry and sterile. Almost many times there was no feeling like, hey, you're going gonna have some amazing adventure around the corner, potentially. And I think that encountering these different cultures, you know, and especially india, I mean, you know, anything can happen at any time, like literally, you can go around the corner and you've got like something amazing, something that could even change your like, like meeting my friend just in the middle of the street, you know, or finding an amazing photograph I think I like to use this term lately that I feel a little bit like a hunter or a seeker of treasures, you know, like photographic treasures, and they can pop out of anywhere in some places, but you know, in Australia I just felt like I don't know if there's any chance for this to pop up.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:It's probably my shortcoming, at least back then, but you're definitely not overwhelmed by that feeling. So I think that those things combined the early years still back in the USSR, and then going to Australia and seeing what's possible, but then kind of feeling like I was too overprotected, too sort of regulated, too shielded, let's say, from the world that kind of really made me want to see what else is out there.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, just human curiosity. I guess that lives within us some more than others, depending on, like you said, upbringing and environment and confinement in a geographical sense. So that totally makes sense. And now you've taken it from, I'm going to ask you to kind of explain your life in two minutes. But you're in Brazil at the moment and you're having a month there and this travel and this curiosity you've taken under your arm and you've really just gone for it and you've taken photography along with it. But let's start, let's go back to even before India. Tell us kind of your Genesis story in terms of where photography came from, why you picked up a camera, how it happened, Did you fall into it, Was it like, did you study it, or how did you kind of get into photography?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, no, the funny thing, I did photography classes in school, back still in the film days, and I think the whole year I attended like five classes. I wanted to be a professional basketball player, but I didn't grow since the age of 13. So that dream slowly faded and I guess in high school all I was doing is just playing basketball rather than even going to class. And then, yeah, I just realized that it was great. It gave me a great physical sort of start, but not very useful for anything else. And then photography I was always very visual from I don't know where I get it from, maybe from my grandfather, he, he, he was like born in the countryside, rural area, sort of really, uh, peasant, uh class in in Belarus, but yet he had, like you know, sometimes people say like someone has a gift and he could just draw. You know, he would just draw with charcoal on walls, on paper, and I would look at his drawings and I'd just be in awe and I'd want to emulate him. And so, uh, when I, um, then, you know, developed, I started drawing little comics and so I kind of started to learn to see things inside of a frame, which I didn't realize would later, I guess, play a role in me, uh, really sort of being able to see things within the frame in photography. So I think that it kind of I created certain instincts, maybe, you know, through doing that, through making these comics and the photography itself.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, it's kind of a funny story because I went to university somehow, despite playing basketball throughout high school. I just kind of studied for the last couple of years of high school, made it to university in Australia and I met this girl and so I fell madly in love with this girl and she was like really into a lot of artistic things, including photography, and she wanted to get me into photography and so she kind of got me into it and I made these photos of her still with a film camera. And then the funny thing is, every time the holidays would come, she would break up with me and I'd feel miserable and I'd be like man, you know, like I've got nothing to do I'm bored on the holidays.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So during the holidays, so after the next breakup, I said I need to find myself a hobby, you know, because I don't want to feel miserable during the holidays. You know, 18 years old, 19. I don't remember how old I was and I said, well, yeah, I kind of like photography. Maybe I'm going to give photography a go. You know, I'm going to buy a camera which back then was not a film. I didn't, definitely didn't want to shoot film because I don't have the patience for it. So I actually got a point and shoot. I think it was like a Nikon 990, if I'm not mistaken, one of these twisty cameras and I started to just experiment, almost like a child, and started photographing everything under the sun and when it wasn't sunny as well, just really, yeah, playing around. And so it kind of gave me a purpose, you know. And then I kept going and going, and then we got back together again, and then I still liked making these photos, and then we broke up again. But now I had this hobby, this wonderful way to actually, you know, because I wasn't very imaginative as far as how to spend my time when I was in university, and so you kind of make all of these plans and you think, hey, yeah, I'm going to have fun with this girl and yeah, I was really into that, you know. And yeah, I was really into that.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:And then, when I got sort of cut off in a way I needed to keep my family, we were traveling to see my family With my parents, we would travel to see my family in Belarus and would make this sort of long journey I realized, hey, I like traveling, and so then these things just kind of combined. I worked a summer job during the 2000 Olympics and yeah, I think it was maybe it was then or before then that I got a camera. But I said, all right, I'm going to go on a solo journey. I was 19 and I'm going to go to Hong Kong, because I was already a little bit familiar with it. I'm going to go there see what I can do, see if I can make some photos, shoot some video, and so that's what I did.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:And then it just felt like such a natural fit to have a camera with you and rather than just telling the stories, now you could show these places that you were traveling around. You could really kind of take it to the next level and I realized that, hey, I actually like that. I actually like sharing these stories, like telling people where I've traveled, where I've gone, and being able to illustrate and then get some reactions. And you know, there was something within and I think, you know, people just have that fire, you know, either the creative fire or the fire of like a storyteller or a communicator. Sometimes we have it and we don't even necessarily know why that is, but it's there, so it was kind of a natural fit. So, yeah, I don't know if that answers, but more or less, Often people's journey is a slow organic evolution into it, right?
Matt Jacob:Rather than just like, well, I'm going to go and pick up a camera now because I've decided it, but in all of these influences from your childhood to your family, travels to family artists, right? Or just random things like a breakup, yeah, with a yeah, yeah, yeah, crying yourself to sleep every night and thinking it wasn't quite crying but uh, yeah, it was. Uh, you know, it was when I was 18, a breakup with someone I I very emotional, very emotional, yeah, very emotionally immature at that time.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Which is so funny, right? Because all these years later you just kind of think I'm like yeah, yeah, embarrassed, but I'm very glad that I got that. You know that opportunity uh out of that, uh out of that case, out of that thing happening kind of saved you.
Matt Jacob:I love it. It's a nice poetic story to that. And so when did when did it kind of become? And, more importantly, how did it become a profession for you? When did you go?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:okay, look, I want to take this to the next level and I want this to be my vocation, my passion, my career say that there was a period, I think I finished university, 2002, and I just like I just started traveling because after the hong kong trip I realized, hey, I love travel, you know. So, being in australia, southeast asia, is close, uh, it's accessible, it is, um, you know, it's safe enough, it's sort of, yeah, right around the corner. So the next logical thing, I went to thailand. Now it wasn't quite as crazy touristy back in 2002, like you know, that that pretty much everybody I don't know at some stage I think, was like, okay, I'm going to thailand, you know, but the first thing that you do. So there was still a little bit of a sense of adventure for me, uh, back then. And so I said, hey, I'm gonna do that, that's the next sort of trip that I'm gonna do. And and I got my uh, I believe, my first digital slr. I don't really remember specifically, but I think that's where I got my first digital slr, actually in thailand. And then I I started photographing things there, but for a while I was actually really balancing or or really deciding between or not so much deciding.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I really wanted to make films, initially documentary films, because at university I studied film history and theory, but it was mostly sort of theory, so it wasn't to make films, but it was to talk about films or to write about it, and I realized very early on that I would not find any job with that degree. But the basis that I got from that was that I could really sort of understand the, the visual side of film. I could understand how films are made, how also it applied to photography. I could understand things deeper than maybe a regular person thanks to that education, you know. But I still really wanted to make films. So I got this um back then I yeah, this makes me feel really old but uh, it was a mini dv camera, uh, with little tapes, and so I'd take this camera and and I needed like a big ass separate sound recorder, yeah, and and I'd like try to do things on my own. You know, I I actually filmed a little doco, uh, about a child boxer in thailand.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So I was always interested in sort of things that were a little bit uh, not the the mainstream, you know a little bit outside. It was also just through chance. Also, I've always believed in just kind of going with the flow and taking advantage of the opportunity. So this guy was handing out little pamphlets. That was boxing night and we chatted and then I said, hey, this is fascinating. I went to that night and I saw these children fighting and I said, my God, this is so fascinating that they're just kids but they're doing such an adult thing and they're really kind of little warriors. But what else is behind that? You know, like I, just I was captivated by that and so, uh, he invited me to the boxing camp. He was actually a foreigner who had a boxing camp there and and I went there and I said, and there was a young guy who was training there and I said, hey, hey, you know, maybe I can make a little film about him. Is that okay if I come back and make a film? And he said, yeah, so that's kind of how I got into the filmmaking.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But then I quickly realized that well, I didn't quite realize it back then, but back then was not the right time to make video. It was not as easy and accessible as it is now, you know, because then to edit, to edit it, you know, download all those tapes, to have even the technology to to trend, because I was, uh, I spoke a little bit of tide, but not enough to like translate the whole thing. So I had a translator. We were watching these tapes, we were what. I was trying to subtitle this stuff. I mean, technology has changed a lot, right like it's. It's incredible that these things that were such a challenge and an obstacle back then we don't even think about now. Like you want a subtitle? Yeah, just you know, use an app. You don't need to capture any of the tapes with the Firewire cable and all that.
Matt Jacob:Firewire, oh my God yeah.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, so it was. I was realizing it's pretty hard to do. And then the next frustration came when all this hard work that I'd put in and I was accepted to a few festivals and I even won an award for best editing but it amounted to $0, 0 cents a plastic trophy. And I said shit, if this is how it's going to be, I can't keep doing this, you know, because I'd still have to keep working jobs. I'd shoot weddings, whatever you know. At university I worked as a waiter on a boat. My main thing was that I just got obsessed with travel and photography, so I wanted to do anything and everything to be able to go on. The next trip I think that's also I'm really sounding like sort of an old grumpy guy the next trip I think that's also. I'm really sounding like a like sort of an old grumpy guy.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But like things are so much easier in that sense because you can actually find a much easier way to then make, to make money with your passion, you know, with photography or video, whatever it is, whether it's. Then it's like the only real option was like to shoot a corporate thing, to shoot a wedding, and I ended up hating weddings as a result of shooting too many wedding videos and listening to too many cheesy speeches. But, yeah, that was kind of the thing that I was always trying to get out there trying to shoot something. But eventually I realized, hey, this is just too much to do on my own. And parallel to that I was making photographs and parallel to that I started. Actually, I remember I got this email Someone wanted my photograph for a cover of a book and I had made zero dollars from my documentary films. And here I was going to get like back then I think it was 700 euro for this book cover and I said, wow, this is exactly the kind of work that I want to do and I'm getting paid for it. Maybe there's something there.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:And then I think I made a submission to back then it was a magazine called Black and White. I don't shoot Black and White now, but back then I did and it was seen as quite prestigious back then. It was bought by many collectors, photo collectors and I won like a. There's a portfolio competition and if you win one of the sort of spots for the magazine, it gets shown to all these collectors. And then suddenly I got all these emails, people asking me to buy prints of my images. And I was like, wow, people asking me to buy prints of my images. And I was like, wow, that can happen, that's interesting, yeah. Like they say, hey, how much are you charging? You know what's the paper, how can you send it? And suddenly I had to kind of fake it till you make it, because I was sounding like I really know what I'm doing, but I was improvising. I got the prints for all of them but I had to quickly learn how do you do it, how do you print, how do you actually post it?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Then I made a mistake that I posted a whole like thing, I think, in a not laminated but like behind glass, basically. So the postage well, the guy was ready to pay for the postage but it was like a huge amount for the postage because it weighed like 10 kilos, I think. I mean now I know that usually people just, you know, roll it up in the tube and sign it and send it off. But the guy asked for that so I said, all right, I'll send you that. Yeah, it was like a huge, oversized 30 by 20 inch thing, and I think, with a border was even a little bit more. But yeah, like I kind of got an insight into that that wow, it's, it's actually possible to make money with this. This is, this is crazy. And I thought, hey, well, let me just uh see if I can make just enough, because I was always, you could say, I guess, a little bit rebellious in a way that I didn't want to like go the standard route.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I wasn't interested in this is I hadn't been married yet, but I wasn't like planning on having a standard life. You know well, I still don't but I didn't think that I would have kids, let's say, because that, I think, changes things a lot and makes you have to be a little bit more responsible in thinking about money. So I just said, hey, I'm going to have this romantic sort of life with a camera head out into the world, because that's what I want. I want a meaningful life, I want a purposeful life, I want to learn about the world, I don't want to be stuck in the nine to five and I respect people a lot who do that.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But I just knew that I would be miserable, because any job that I had outside of travel and photography, I was just completely miserable just dreaming about the next journey, writing down ideas, also for films, because I still kind of had the thought that I might return to that. And so I said, hey, this is something that I really should pursue. And so I said, hey, this is something that I really should pursue.
Matt Jacob:I don't know how deep you want me to go into it, because then there's the part sort of when things started to really turn around. Yeah, we'll come back to that in a minute. I wanted to just have that touch upon kind of how you got into that, on kind of how you got into that. But more importantly, like now, 15, 20, however many years being now, so much has changed. How would you do it differently now, if at all?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Oh shit now. Well, the idea would still be the same. I think that a lot of people try to kind of shortcut the process, but I would still say, hey, make money however you can If you're doing travel I think also travel photography has changed but let's say, even if you're not traveling, just work on your portfolio, create images that you can be proud of, create images that will make you stand out from others. That'll find your own sort of voice in a way that's very overused. But you know, try to understand who you are. Try to understand who you are, and I think that should take at least a couple of years personally, so I wouldn't really like necessarily worry. Still, that part, I think, would still be similar, but I think that these days you know brand deals. If I'm a young guy, I would like try to get as many free hotel stays as possible.
Matt Jacob:Yeah.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:You know, collapse Probably try to like do shoots with models, improvised stuff like that, like right on location. You know, because there are just so many more opportunities. People are so much need photos so much more, and then with video also, people need that. They understand what it's for. You know, because there are just so many more opportunities. People are so much need photos so much more, and then with video also, people need that. They understand what it's for, you know, and you can find. You can just approach a hotel. You've got a bit of a following, something on your YouTube. You say, hey, I can do this for you. Can I stay here free for a week or whatever it is, you know, however long it is. And so I think that there are just many, many more opportunities. Everything is much faster. Like back when I was making those films, I had to actually send a DVD, you know, in an envelope.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Or a portfolio as a book. Yeah, actually, yeah, I remember. Yeah, for a gallery. I took that with me too. Yeah, absolutely. So I would take advantage.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Let's say the attitude maybe would still be the same, because I think it's important to put the work in front of everything else. I think you definitely should fake it till you make it in the business side of things, but not in the photography side of things. You know what I mean. Because some people, some younger photographers, they approach me and say, hey, how can I make this my job and this and that? And then I have a look at their images and, uh, you know, I I never want to be discouraging, but to myself I'm thinking, hey, man, you haven't really got anything yet. You don't even know if you're any good, if anyone actually needs your images yet. So I kind of tried to to find a gentle way to put it, because sometimes you don't know if somebody has a talent yet. You know, like my first images were hopeless. You know I would be ashamed to show them to people now, but I knew what was inside of me. Maybe that person knows what's inside of them, but they still need to kind of prove it to others.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, totally, totally agree. I do quite a lot of portfolio audits and I have those thoughts for the majority of the audit and not in a cause. We've all been there, right, we've all kind of the fact that people are putting themselves out there is brave enough, but, you know, most of the time it's like well, let's just work on getting stronger images first, and then we could talk about how we put them together. And you talked about you know meaning, purpose, voice. It's kind of overused. I use it a lot. I think it's important, for if you want to go professional, to make sure you have that uniqueness I don't think there's some thing as originality anymore in today's homogenized world but just have a uniqueness to something, and that often comes through Okay, style, but style is again homogenized.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But having that self-reflection that you talked about, self-expression- yeah, I would say that in my opinion and maybe you agree, I think that after a while it just kind of slides into place. It just kind of happens. Naturally, people talk about develop your style. How do you develop it? Do I grab something and develop it? Do I hold the camera and then go?
Matt Jacob:I don't know how do you actually?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:you do more of it exactly, you shoot and, and then you sort of, if you travel, you, you, you start to understand things, you understand yourself a little bit more, you understand, maybe, how you have sometimes I think it helps looking at the work of others as well and seeing okay, this is what I like about it, this is what I don't like, this is how I want to differentiate myself, you know.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So it's having a bit of an awareness about the world around you, not not like, not necessarily like very, very deep, because I think that even if you don't have, even if you don't have a deep awareness of it, you can, you can still have your own voice, you know. But I just think it helps if you're talking about, uh, the marketplace, you know, if you're talking about professional, but as far as, like, developing your style, I'm sure there are many people who don't even look at the work of others who have something, uh, quite unique. Originality um, yeah, that's interesting that you mentioned there's no originality anymore. Do you mean that that it's all like sort of everything is derivative in some way, or what do you mean by that?
Matt Jacob:Yeah, exactly, yeah, everything you know, people, people throw around the original and I think there's a big difference between being original and unique. I mean, there are different definitions in themselves. But yeah, you know, there is no such thing as originality and in my opinion, we are influenced from from the womb as much as early childhood. And when we talk about adulthood and you talk about inspirations, we're all inspired by so many things, whether it's a conscious kind of intentional referral and inspiration and education type thing or the subconscious side that we take in all of this all the time, especially if we're in the bubble of photography. So I don't think there is really true, true, true originality in that.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:That's an interesting thought. I need to think about it a little bit more, but I agree. I agree with it so far.
Matt Jacob:All right, well, tell us. You mentioned competitions and I know you know I want to get this in there because people people watching and listening to this will if they don't know you, they'll be checking you out right now and we're you know. Apologies if I haven't mentioned this before, but your work is absolutely stunning, right, so it's an incredible body of work, as much as the stories and the kind of the diversity of what you capture and why you capture it. That's what really interests me, as well as just them being. You know gorgeous images and, quiteifiably, you've won some awards, right, and you talked about award awards before, and I think in 2015,. You won travel photographer of the year for the in the faces and portraits category. Was this a seminal moment or are you going to tell me about, you know, when, another moment or another period when it all started to go in the right direction for you?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:No, you know honestly, for me the sort of validation was when I was able to. This is my sort of original. My original vision was I want to make just enough money to survive and live in India or somewhere in Southeast Asia cheap make photos all my life, you know, or as far forward as I can imagine.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So I was thinking, hey, 10,000 bucks US in India, that'll go a long way. If I can make that, that's enough. I'll consider myself successful. So for me it was really when I started to regularly make an income from my photographs and then the whole thing sort of took an interesting twist, because I never really thought about doing photo education. That's what I do a lot of now. Right, that's basically become the main income because the industry had shifted, main income because the industry had shifted.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I was doing stuff being represented by Lonely Planet Images back then Getty Images, corbis, all these good sort of photo agencies, just after the golden age of stock had finished because micro stock had come in, and so the whole industry was kind of turned on its head and those photos that you could sell like images for $500 before, we're now 15. So I realized, okay, then I guess that's really not the way to go anymore. You know, like people are not as ready to pay for images as they are to learn how to make images like you or to have those experiences. So it was, that was a really kind of a moment where I understood a few things. And then I made you know what? I was probably one of the first people to do this little ebook on on photo processing back um 2009, and it went really well. And then I made another one and another one and all of a sudden I I uh, was invited.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I was basically given a contract with what back then was a pretty big photography school, and so all of a sudden, I was able to have money for the first time in my life and had financial freedom to do whatever the hell I want, and I started to get more publications. But then I just it was more like a little subsidy or something nice, you know, like sending it off to Geographical UK or something like that and then just saying, oh yeah, this is great, we're going to publish. It was more like, oh, this is nice, okay, this is nice, but I don't need it because I've already got the income, I've already got a certain level of financial freedom that I can only pursue those subjects that interest me and nothing else. And I'm going to be okay if I don't sell it, if I don't do this and that. So I think that probably just understanding that, hey, I'm making money with photography now which was like an actual equivalent to like what regular people in Australia would be making with a regular job.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:That was like a moment like that. And I think when maybe another little reminder I really find kind of it's weird to talk about your own work, you know, like your achievements or whatever, because I really honestly haven't really given a crap about it, because I've sort of been just enjoying the ride and so I haven't really pursued that. But I remember that when I was an ambassador for Panasonic and then they allowed me to shoot a campaign for them and I was kind of one of the faces behind one of the cameras and at Photokina they had this huge print of my head next to Neymar, because he was also one of Lumix ambassadors.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I said shit. This is kind of interesting. I never expected that it's possible to do this with photography, to be at this biggest photo expo in the world and to actually I mean you couldn't actually see my eyes because the whole idea was that the camera. But I knew the camera is like you're like Cyclops, the camera is covering your face. But that was kind of the idea of this campaign, because I shot the images and then they shot a little video about me actually using the camera. So then that was kind of a moment where I thought, okay, you know, you're doing pretty good, you're doing sort of something far beyond what you thought was even possible. With photography and the Travel Photographer of the Year. I mean, I think that was like one of the few competitions that I entered and I wanted to win the whole thing. I didn't, but it was a nice. It was definitely a nice thing. I tried to leverage that as much as I could, getting a pop plus everywhere Quite rightly, did any doors open for you after something like that.
Matt Jacob:I mean, I don't really love the whole award thing because it's kind of like I don't know we can talk about that another time but did it. It's almost like a marketing tool in itself, right.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:It is, it absolutely is.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So I was quite strategic about it because I said, hey, I'm going to win this competition, or at least get win a category, and then I'm going to make another product how my images won in this competition clever so I thought, okay, and that was good, I made, I made this course and, um, and it was sort of my main bread burner for quite a few years, um, so that's what I mean by sort of milking it, because people wanted to know how to make that, and I thought it's actually a great opportunity because all of a sudden now you have these images. Also, I don't like this whole idea of validation, but, like it or not, that is the case that this is sort of a stamp of approval. These images are really good. So if you want to make images like this, then they won an award. But then also, not that long ago, which I think it's very funny I'm very cynical about all these things, but there was a tourism board, the tourism board of Andalusia in Spain. They saw this award and they thought that I won the whole thing, which I'm always careful to point out that I'm a category winner.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:You know, uh, which is, you know, my specialty people. But uh, they're just uh, they, they, they liked it and then they I don't know where they found me, but they invited me for this really big campaign that they uh did they, they invited, tell uh, 10 photographers, slash youtubers, slash influencers from around the world to shoot a quite a big campaign for Andalusia tourism board, and that was just sort of uh 23. Yeah, it was time at the end of 23. So, yeah, that kind of opened a door much, much later, like uh, thanks to that. You know, it was one of the things, one of the things for those people who just want to put it as something impressive, to to uh, to show, to justify, I guess why you, why you're getting this, this random guy.
Matt Jacob:It helps. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I want to move on a little bit to kind of the lessons in the madness and your processes of you know doing you. Importantly, I want to talk about what your intention is when you go to these places, especially when it comes to the ethical balances of accessing these people and taking photographs or collaborating with them, and how you give back, if that's a continuous mindset that you have. So, yeah, no specific question there, but just kind of walk us through how you approach a project in itself when you're doing a travel project.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think it has changed a lot, yeah, a hell of a lot. In India. It was all with this friend and I'd say in my young days it was a lot of taking. I was 25, and India is such a generous country that people are more than willing to give. The thing that I wanted to give back was my attention and my time and just really caring, because there are cases where photographers go go and they couldn't care less. You know, they see, as one of my friends put it, they see a subject, you know, a person in front of the camera as a reflective surface. Basically, you know, you may as well use a mannequin if you sort of have that mentality.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So I realized that early on that people they really appreciated just being heard. Not only that, hey, snap, snap, see you later. You know, because I was traveling with my friend, I could actually get to hear their stories and and I learned a lot from him you know he was the king of small talk and um, so so I learned. But then it always progressed to a natural sort of conversation. People wanted to share. They're really in India. People are extremely curious. They wanted to know about me, about my wife. They were asking so many questions and I was ready to answer them. I loved that interaction. So I think early on, one story in particular stands out there was a guy who had shown us around his village for days. He was so hospitable and then the only thing he wanted at the end is for us to come for dinner at his house. Now the problem was that we really wanted to have an early night and I would need to drive 20, 30 kilometers in the dark, 20, 30 kilometers in the dark back to the hotel.
Matt Jacob:Which in India is pretty dangerous.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Exactly. Yeah, it could be a cow or a child in the middle of the road A lot of the time. Vehicles also don't have lights, but yeah, and so what happened was and we needed to start early because we had a long distance to cover, and I said to my friend man, please tell him that we can't do it. Thank you so much, but we can't do it. And then the guy actually cried. You know this grown man. He actually cried that. We said no and I said okay, fuck it, you know, I'm gonna forget it. I am gonna come for dinner because he's done so much for us. That's the least I could do. You know, it's like he's done all this and he wants to give me more. So I did do it and that sort of made me realize that sometimes people just really love to be seen, they love to be seen as a human being and they love to have just a genuine exchange. Sometimes it really is as simple as that and I think in the West also, that's something that all people are missing.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Now, in the early goings there was, in countries where I don't speak the language, of course, it's guides, it's translators. When I traveled to Indonesia, I had actually picked up Indonesian quite well and after six months I had basic conversation on Indonesian, which I can't recall much of now, which was in 2008. But you know, that really helped. So I didn't really need a guide there, although still we did. I remember travel with a wonderful girl in West Timor who, again, three of us me, my wife and her on this little moped, going through deep mountains and she was just getting us into all these places and she was just getting us into all these places and, yeah, kind of being our key, our window, our bridge between us and that culture. And so there was a lot of that. But recently what I've been doing is I try to, I think almost for the last decade, I've been traveling in countries where I speak the language right. So I traveled a lot in the former USSR. I speak Russian and they speak Russian from 2015 or so Georgia, armenia, belarus. So I spent a lot of time in Georgia and Armenia and it was wonderful because no longer did I need somebody to be in between. But, yeah, having those people was fantastic. They became some of my friends, my brothers. I still keep in touch with them until today. You know, there was a friend in mauritania. There was a friend in ethiopia who sadly, uh, killed himself, but we we kept in touch and, um, yeah, everybody I kind of tried to keep in touch with, even until today Now in South America. A big reason why I'm kind of stuck here since 2019 now is because I speak Spanish and I'm improving Portuguese. So that's as far as communication goes.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Now, as far as giving back, I don't know if you want me to talk about I'll say the giving back part first, now that I'm traveling in a car, I think some of the basic ways are you know, you're in the middle of the desert in Mauritania and I had my Land Rover and these nomads they need to get, you know, through this sandstorm. They need to get to their village. It's much easier if I drive them. So I really started to see little things like that. You know, people in the Andes they need to walk 10 kilometers. They flagged me down. Hey, great. And it's crazy that later on this woman remembered it and she gave me a homemade cheese and corn the next day.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So little things. I just try to do little things like that, not necessarily thinking very big scale, because I haven't necessarily done any very specific projects recently, but as I am applying for some grants that I would like to do. There is that social component, to give something back to an entire community, and just recently I was thinking about it. I think it only makes sense now because the world is changing. You know, because the world it is, you know it's changing. It's different, I think, a lot of the time the work that only people like me could do maybe in 2008,. Now there are local photographers that can do very similar work.
Matt Jacob:Yeah yeah.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So what can you bring that they can't bring? You know, can you bring attention from outside? Can you maybe help out in some way? Can you maybe help out in some way? But also, in general, I think I often do befriend the people that I photograph. You know, like we have a relationship, like there was a family in Colombia we met randomly, ended up just hanging out. You know, I'd invite them for dinner every other day. We went to like a water park, things that they, they didn't have a chance to do, but because we became friends, because I had a car, which they didn't, you know, just just little things like that yeah, I think, um, what everything you're saying is totally resonant with how how I would certainly want to promote to to others.
Matt Jacob:And how did you go about traveling with a camera, right? And if we simplify that and dilute it down, a lot of it just comes with the willingness to spend time with people, whether that's rather than just jumping into a location because it's the sunrise, getting shots and never going back there again, right, or the opposite was, like you, you it's more of a collaboration or involvement. If the opportunity arrives, like let's just spend some time together, right, jump in a car, you know, give back to strangers, but also the people that you're you're trying to shoot. Like let's just sit and spend some time with each other because, like you said, that's what, that's what people really appreciate and they, therefore, they kind of trust you a little bit better and you yeah, you do get better photos as a result.
Matt Jacob:Uh, you know, and um, yeah, and you kind of just feel better as well, I think but also, like, like you said, it's not just giving back in that location, it's also like, so when you do exit, what are you going to do with those images? How are you going to tell those stories and how are you going to represent and distribute and what else are you going to do around that, if at all, if necessary? So how do you think your images impact those people that maybe haven't traveled or haven't kind of maybe in some cases, left their country? You know, do you believe that that kind of visual exposure matters to give maybe those people a voice but also educate others in in, in order to be maybe a little bit more empathetic and kind of shift their perception?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think for me there's a big thing for me. I, for the last few years, I've really tried to avoid photographing the the frequently photographed topics and subjects, right, so you know, like there are a few of these now cliched subjects around the world. That list is growing. But because sort of I've had this obsession since early in my photographic journey to be able to have control, to be able to have a vehicle, to get off the beaten track, to go to places which other people don't go to, and yeah, I do want to. You know, I don't want to exaggerate and say I'm giving a voice to these people because maybe they don't give a shit about me giving them a voice.
Matt Jacob:Not everyone wants that.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But sometimes they do, sometimes they'd be like in Brazil they say that, hey, uh, that's cool, you know, show us, you know, and I think that show what we do here. You know, again, some people, they just they're just tired of the photographers or tourists in general coming in and they couldn't care less. So actually that's what I've really been seeking lately is to be in those places where I'm wanted. Why I love Brazil so much? Because it's kind of a combination of all these countries I've been to and it's very interesting visually and it's welcoming and it's warm and people are wonderful and I really feel wanted, like people really want to share their culture. You know they're really. It's like hey, you want our culture? Hey, take it, take it, come, come, you know, enjoy and be a part of it if you want. So that's one thing.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:But also, like recently, I'm often kind of in research mode for projects, like they might just end up being something small, they might not end up being anything at all. But I was like following a particular river in Brazil and just seeing some of the fishing communities there and I realized before long that these are places that nobody goes to at all. People just don't know that they even exist. So in that way it kind of automatically becomes a way of actually just showing hey, look at this, this exists, these people exist. Hey, look at this, this exists, these people are exist. And in some way, I think it's, it's it's almost like an homage to, to regular people, you know, because uh, obviously in the media everything is is uh clickbait. It's like you know everything is very loud.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, the competitions also. It's. It's a often like things that you've seen before. You know it's. It's a style that you've seen before. It's a style that you've seen before, but it's these very loud, like it's reindeer herders or I don't know whatever, like Bhutanese something, some of these things that have now become very well known. I'm not saying that there's no space for that, but just for me, it no longer interests me as much.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I realized that I was kind of doing that early on, although I think that when I was doing it, I was probably one of the still first ones to be photographing some of the subjects, like you know, like these Indian wrestlers that wrestle in the mud, or the sulfur miners, you know, of course, they were already known back then, but they didn't become like part of the mainstream in a way. You know, and like now, some of these subjects they're not quite on the level of the cormorant fishermen in china or or the mongolian eagle hunters or something like that you know which are really, over the last years, have become, you know, over photographed and actually it's interesting. You know, I think there's still room to photograph that, but, uh, you just room to photograph that, but you just have to photograph it completely differently. You have to kind of acknowledge the cliche and just photograph it completely differently. But I guess what I'm interested more is having my experience, because it's just so much more deep, so much. People give you more time and they appreciate more that you're there.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:And now that I have my daughter, we went to one of these random, uh, middle of nowhere villages and all the kids wanted to play with her and she enjoyed it too, because these kids weren't stuck in their phone, they were running around and they're playing catch and doing all of that and these people were just fascinated by us. So again, it kind of goes back to giving back in just the way of interaction and acknowledging the people, but, yeah, showing that yeah, there's giving back to the people that you are photographing with and around, but there's also giving back.
Matt Jacob:You talked about education earlier and that the courses that you do and um the the photographers that you you educate, um, you can give back in that way as well. Do you feel like there is a responsibility for you to educate in the right way and more of an ethical way, rather? Oh?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:absolutely, 100%, 100%, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that's really where we can make differences right.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, you know, again, I think after many years I've become quite cynical, but I think that the least that I can do yes, I have to be the one not the one, but one of the people that's kind of saying hey, uh, you know, slow down the picture sometimes is not the most important thing, you know? Uh, you may be the first person and the last person that this, this person that you're photographing will, will see from the outside world. How are you representing not just your country but the whole outside world to them? Essentially right, because if you make an impression that you're an asshole, then they're probably gonna think that everybody's an asshole outside yeah so that's kind of how I look at it.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, I mean, there are many levels to it. Uh, again, I think that, uh, there's not necessarily necessarily a right or wrong and I'm not necessarily against like not not being obsessed with this idea of directly helping that person. Bringing prints is nice and all that, and doing little deeds is nice. I believe in the bigger picture, this idea of karma. I guess that someone is hospitable to you somewhere. You then help out somebody else. Uh, you know the kind of making a, reaching a sort of equilibrium in a, in a, in a bigger picture of the world.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, fascinating, um, you know, I wanted to also just try and kind of um kind of gate that topic off before we move on to trying to get into the heads of your audience and your viewers. You know, if the average person could see what you've seen, you know, how would you think about how that might change them? Right, because there's so many? I'm a big, big believer of travel. I think it's the best education tool. I'm sure you, yeah, I'm sure you, agree too. But for those who can't or don't want to, or don't have the means to blah, blah, blah, how do you think if you're able to get them in your head, how do you think that would change them?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think it can turn the world on its head. The prejudices go away very quickly. Quickly, you may think something about a people and this is one of the things that I said that look, first of all, you, as a photographer, the prejudices, they do not apply to you, do not even think about that, because you're going there clean slate. You don't care about what this people thinks about that people. That's not you and it's not going to help your work. But then you know, you travel to, to whatever country it is, and you may have a certain uh idea about what people there are like, and then you meet them. You know somebody is the other. Until you meet them, you know it's very easy to hate the other. It's very easy to hate them. You know them until them becomes a friend, until them becomes somebody, somebody who gives you a window into their culture and shows you the beautiful things about you know. So it has happened even with me.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:You know there are some prejudices that we have and then when I went to certain places and saw certain things, I said, shit, how wrong I was. You know, and I think that a lot of people could need a very heavy dose of that. You know, because, you know, I hate this thing of saying, oh, ultimately we're all the same, because of course we're all the same, we're human, you know. I mean, I am interested in the differences, but I think some people don't realize that. I think some people don't realize that we're all the same ultimately. You know, they think that somebody might be a fanatic, somebody might be this and that, but it's like dude, really everybody is driven by more or less the same things and sometimes, yeah, you just need to see that up close, you need to maybe feel their pain, that they feel pain like you, feel their joy, that they feel joy like you. So, yeah, all the prejudices just disappear like this.
Matt Jacob:Once, I think, once you, once you travel yeah, it's like therapy, isn't it and it and it and it happens fast. You know people who haven't haven't had those experiences and you know they just have to have a day in in the life of right and meeting these people like it's just a little deed sometimes.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, exactly yeah, and they just end up, oh yeah, they're a human that's struggling with exactly the same things I am, but in a different way, with different background, different context, different perspectives. But, yeah, it's like music to my ears hearing you say that, so thank you.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I think, also, what travel does is it gives you perspective. You know, because, like you say, it's the best teacher, because once you know, hey, people are there, they do things this way, here they do things that way, and there they do things another way. So do you really think either one of these ways is really the best? You know, I see with some of my friends that don't travel, they'll say, oh, but it's, it's there, you know, and I think that they're the center of the world. You very quickly realize, hey, you're not the center of the world. Your way of thinking is not the only way of thinking. Your religion is not the only religion. Uh, you know, uh, there are other things out there and, uh, what you want to believe is what you want to believe, but give space to to believe, but give space to, to to the other thing. You know the other beliefs and the other cultures and everything else as well. I love it.
Matt Jacob:What do you, um, what do you hope your body of work contributes, If anything like after you've gone, once you pass away? You know, I always kind of that's how I gain perspective. I think, oh, in a hundred years time, no one, no one remember who I, no one cares, right, you know. So what are we doing this for? But, you know, photography is beautiful in that respect, or any kind of visual art that might be able to to remain, and now, in digital media, we find ways to kind of keep things around permanently. Is that? Do you care about that in terms of a legacy, in terms of what people, what you want people to feel, even after you're gone?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:what people, what you want people to feel, even after you're gone. I used to care much more because I I felt like I was on this mission to photograph these, you know, uh, far away cultures and everything like that. But now, like I said, that the whole world is changing, that within those cultures, people can photograph them. Like I went to an event, a middle of nowhere event, with these cowboys in brazil and there were two people with cameras there, just local guys documenting the whole thing, just for the love of it. So I don't know if that's going to be the legacy.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, to be honest, I think about it less and less because I think everything is going to change and who knows if anyone is even going to care. So I think my goal is really just to make my life I don't know if it sounds like weird, but to make it a masterpiece in a way. You know, to just try and have these experiences. You know, also it's a little bit hard, sometimes online, until you see the people to actually really feel any impact. You know, like sometimes you'll get a very nice email, sometimes I've been lucky to to have people recognize me from from a couple of my videos, actually in the middle of nowhere in in in Peru, and we became friends too, but like and then you realize, oh, I impacted that person in a little way.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Or you know, somebody says, hey, you know, like you made me see photography in a different way. So, uh, but, but there are so many different ways and I and I just really want to focus on all right, how do I get the most out of out of this here now? Uh, maybe it's a flaw in a way, because I'm a little bit blind sometimes to the future or the past, but I try to be in the present as much as possible.
Matt Jacob:I think that's really really important and a way to stay grounded as well, which I think is also extremely important. Last few questions. I know we're kind of up against time, but when we do talk about kind of the aesthetics of a body of work right that we can put out there whether it's for a book or for an exhibition or whether it's just like our life's work when we think about the portfolio side of things and putting images together, are there any kind of tips you can give to the audience in terms of what may be the most important facet of is when you think about putting a portfolio together?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:You mean just selecting images or how it all works together. Both, both, I'd say for me, the photos that I mean. Look, it really depends If you're just doing like a best of your best photos and that's your portfolio. If it's not targeted towards somebody, I would just say that you know, I've, over the years, I've come to appreciate like depth much more over aesthetic depth of a sense of story, mood, uh, emotional connection. Like am I looking at? As I'm looking at a photograph, am I just thinking, oh yeah, it's's very beautiful, it's aesthetically very pleasing, look at this light, look at this, look at that. Or does it just like smash me on the head, you know? Or does it sort of? Is it almost like? I like to sometimes compare the effect that a really great photo, it could be like a poem or a song, and sometimes you don't even know why the hell it affects you so much, you know yeah, the goosebumps test.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, yeah, uh. I mean I don't know if I've seen I've had goosebumps too too much from photos, but uh, yeah, the idea okay, the right idea.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, but you know what I mean. Yeah, it's more of a metaphor than is.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah absolutely yeah. So I think that that's like find a few images that that do that right that you look at and then it sticks, and then I think, if, if you remember something a few days later, that that's something you know, that that really, uh is a is a strong photograph. And uh, you know there are various tips that that people say you can print it, hang it on your, you know, on wall or whatever, and then see if you get sick of it in a few days, see if it still has that same impact, leave it for a few days, see if it still has the same impact. And the thing that I I mean I've not updated my portfolio for a long time, but what I would usually do is I would I would always change the photo.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:So, like you take out the weakest one, like maybe a year later, one image doesn't resonate with you anymore. You realize, hey, this is just more of a pretty picture. I want now something more that's like either hard hitting or just gets kind of right, you know, to the emotional side, really appeals to the emotional side. So that's how we do it in that regard. And then, when you're talking about, uh, having it all together, uh, that really depends on what on what you're going for. You know, like on my website, because I I had this sort of was creating this sort of um, uh. The idea was to show that I'm a travel photographer, that I do have a certain visual aesthetic. I was just selecting images within that sort of category.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, maybe with some commercial potential. But yeah, I think actually also that could be different. The things which resonate with me most now may be different from those photographs that I would use for commercial purposes, although I want those things to kind of come together. I think that's the ultimate sort of dream and aim and I see a lot of people that when they want to walk that line of not kind of giving a crap too much about the commercial side, that sometimes people kind of turn away from them and it's almost professional suicide in a way. It's like all of a sudden completely delete your portfolio that people have come to know you for and then you just like upload photos that you love making.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:It's like it'd be great if if it worked, but sometimes it's just, uh, it's risky yeah, good tips, all right.
Matt Jacob:Well, as we're wrapping up, I'm gonna, um, gonna ask you one final question, and it's and it's essentially what, what we want to leave viewers thinking and leaving and thinking and feeling as, as they kind of end this conversation, um so what, what is your wish for the world? You know what? What is it that you want people to be be tuning into? Right?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:now and take it piece of.
Matt Jacob:Yeah, just just just peace for for the world. Um, let's think photography specifically, you know, is it the ethical approach that we want for people to travel with? Is it, you know, a technique? Is it? Is it the way we treat social media? We haven't talked about social media. It's kind of one of the first conversations I've had where I deliberately not kind of touching social media. But what is it you feel most strongly about, I guess, when you want to kind of talk to other photographers out there?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:What's my wish as far as photography goes, when I'm talking to other photographers or just in general?
Matt Jacob:Other photographers I mean most people watching listening to this will be either photographers, hobbyists or professionals. So you know, if there's no message, that's fine. Is there anything that you want to speak to them about that you feel strongly?
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Yeah, I think that it depends what journey you want to make right, what you want, the journey that you want to take. Basically, I think it depends on what you want out of life, and I have this sort of rather than think about what I'm going to do in the future, I have this sort of the deathbed test. If I'm on my deathbed and there are things that I'm going to be proud of or not proud of, what is it that I am going to be proud of? What is it that I'm going to reflect on and just go yeah, that was really cool. You know, that was really great.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Is it going to be awards? Is it going to be professional achievements? No, not really. It's really those experiences, it's really the friendships, it's really the other things out. Is it like wow, I made it. Even if I was Steve McCurry and I made the Afghan girl, you know, would I like be laying there and going? I fucking made that photo. I am a photographic legend, you know. I don't know. It wouldn't get me to say, yeah, that was great. You know, I'd like to just reflect on all of those amazing things that the kind of photography that I do has brought to me. That's really, I think what I'd like, and I think it's for that passion, for that fire to stay alive. I think it's very important to reflect on that at least every now and then.
Matt Jacob:Love it. Mitchell, thank you so much for joining me. It's been fascinating to kind of dive into your experiences and get a little insight of what's going on in your head. So I wish you all the best.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Enjoy Brazil, can't wait to see more of your work. Are you shoot? Going to be shooting much out there? Is it more of a break? Oh no, I'm, I'm, I was like shooting more than ever the most that.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:I've shot in the last 10 years. It's just that now I'm taking a break right now. But yeah, I was traveling and shooting very intensely for about two months. I was just kind of you know, after being a father you have to step back a little bit with the shooting, but here I was really reclaiming my identity as a photographer.
Matt Jacob:Love it. Well, best of luck and thanks again for joining me today.
Mitchell Kanashkevich:Thank you, thank you very much you.
