The World Through the Eyes of Shutterbug Klim, a.k.a. @etreleg

Through film photography, photographer Klim (@etreleg) connects with his community and explores his surroundings after he moves out of Belarus to Poland.

He mainly shoots portraits as a way to connect with people through his craft, attentive to how each 35 mm and medium format roll could fit his subjects' personalities. We had a chat with Klim about his photography and more in this interview.

Welcome to the magazine, Klim! Can you tell us a bit about yourself? How and when did you discover film?

Film photography was always around me—my mother and my grandparents took a lot of photos and my mother was an amateur photographer herself. She developed and printed some of her photos. My first experience with film was with the old Zenit. The results were not very good.

Flash forward to the summer of 2022. I was trying to find a way to process some existential crisis and walking into the film store, where my friend used to work. After 15 minutes I walked out with my trusted Vivitar and first roll of Agfa black and white film. And so began my journey.

Why do you still prefer to shoot film now?

I think, in a way, it is easier to start shooting on film than on a digital camera. I can’t imagine the scenario that I’ve described above with DSLR cameras—my hesitant brain would have the urge to compare all sorts of different models, trying to find the best one. Also, I am very much into developing films myself and trying different processes, this part is also quite unique to film.

What do you love to shoot on film?

I love shooting portraits. I try to capture some observations that I have during walks. It doesn’t always end up the way I wanted to, but I’m still learning. But lately, I’ve been leaning more towards portraits, as I want to communicate more with people.

We noticed you've tried out a few Lomography film stocks, especially in your Portraits of Friends albums. What made you try out these film stocks for your portraits?

Curiosity. The Portraits of Friends series was born out of my curiosity to work with the medium format for the first time. So I walked into the shop and just bought a roll of every film in stock. And after that, I tried to match the right film with the right person.

Regarding your subjects, what made you decide to capture your friends like this? How was the experience?

It all started with a roll of film from the 1990s, a simple medium format Kodak Gold. I was looking for someone who could lend me their camera and instead was offered an opportunity to rent a studio for a month, so I ran with it and started to take photos of my friends and family.

Do you have a favorite photo among these albums, and can you tell us the story behind it?

It is very hard to choose one photo among these. I am content with these photos one way or another. I think this one has a story behind it, as these are my married friends who came to me with the idea of this picture. I think Lomography Redscale was the perfect choice for this one.

This photo of a motorbike show you captured on LomoChrome Purple is very cool and interesting, can you tell us how you shot it and what the context of this scene was?

It is a beautiful shot with quite a bit of history! It was my first day in Poland and I went to the old town to sightsee and saw this motorcycle and retro-car festival. So naturally I took a lot of pictures there.

But the story doesn’t end there. I went to the local film lab to develop a film—and it was rather hard because I still had a language barrier. So I came back for the results, and they handed me back a CD! And said the following: “You’ve got some strange film — the photos are great, but the colors are all weird! I tried to correct this but to no avail."

Do you think moving away from Belarus and being in a different environment affected your photography in any way?

I think it has affected me in a lot of ways. Now, I am living in a rather small town and all my friends live elsewhere. So I’ve started to travel more, almost every month I try to travel somewhere else. Sometimes it’s big cities like Krakow or Warsaw, and sometimes more obscure destinations.

What's it like being a film photographer in Poland? Is there a community you interact with or places you like to visit the most to shoot film?

There is a rather large community of film photographers here in Poland. Also, there is a community of Belarusian photographers living abroad. This is a nice community, that organizes open lectures, meetings, and so on. I am pretty much interested in visiting new places and I am trying to always take my cameras with me on trips.

Lastly, are there any cameras or film stocks you'd still like to try out?

I’m still curious about photopositive films—I haven’t had a chance to shoot a lot of the slides and I think that it would be an interesting experience. Also, I am very interested in trying other black-and-white films.

We'd like to thank Klim for sharing his images and stories with us! To keep in touch, visit his LomoHome.

written by sylvann on 2025-03-29 #culture #people #places #poland #portraits #belarus #etreleg Share Article