1940s English home in Kaliningrad - Expat in Kaliningrad, Russia

Alena Kravchenko writes about her love for photography and a past project in the present

Published: 26 July 2022 ~ Alena Kravchenko Photos 1940s’ English Home in Kaliningrad

About Alena Kravchenko, Professional Photographer

Alena Kravchenko Photographer, Kaliningrad

Alena Kravchenko: I have been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. It began in my youth as a hobby. Using my then state-of-the-art Polaroid camera, I would happily snap photos of family and friends and the more pictures I took, the more immersed I became in the art of photography. Furthering my education in this direction purely through self-study, I eventually mastered the art.

For the past three years I have been photographing professionally, receiving commissions for various commercial projects, whilst continuing to develop my skills in the art and science of photography.

To assist me in this endeavour I attend various master classes, study paintings, go to exhibitions and to concerts.

In each context I challenge myself, experimenting with different shooting techniques, different genres and with different stylistic interpretations. Every time I work on a project, I try something new and learn something new! This is the joy of photography! It is an endless source of creative self-expression.

Anything can inspire me to create a project: Nature, with its extraordinary colours and lively locations; people by their charismatic appearance, idiosyncratic character or simply because of their interesting features; diverse forms of architecture – both historical and modern. Whatever the subject matter, I pay great attention to detail and location.

I look at the world through the eyes of a photographer, frequently wishing that the pupils of my eyes were small lenses themselves, able to capture immediately the beauty that surrounds me. But, alas, this never can be, and my phone’s memory is often full, because it is neither practicable nor feasible to carry an expensive and heavy camera with me everywhere I go.

Sometimes I wonder where my inspiration comes from. For example, I recently drove past a field of lambs and visualised a photograph of a shepherd girl and her sister. Photography allows this licence. It allows me to project my vision of the world. The world of photography is wonderful. There is so much to see and explore!

About Alena Kravchenko’s 1940s’ project shot at the home of Mick and Olga Hart

A word from Mick Hart: You know, everybody needs someone to say nice things about them sometime, even me ~ it’s different from when you say them about yourself. So, for the record, for my detractors, the sentiments that follow are not exclusively my own, and I can honestly swear that no money passed hands between Alena Kravchenko and myself for her modest opinions of us and her restrained appraisal of our home.

Alena Kravchenko: A couple from England inspired me to create a project with an Art Deco flavour.

Mick and Olga Hart were performing in Yuri Grozmani’s WWII film Last Tango in Königsberg.

Elegantly dressed in 40s’ style, they looked as if they had stepped from the silver screen of cinema during the Art Deco era.

Immediately, I wanted to get to know them and arrange a retro photo session.

It wasn’t difficult. Olga agreed and a few days later I was invited to their home.

What joy I experienced when stepping over the threshold!

Mick and Olga are real rarity collectors; keepers of 30s’ and 40s’ history.

Alena Kravchenko Photos Olga Hart in 1940s' clothes

Music from the 30s and 40s, commingled with the smell of sweet perfume, carried into the hallway. The vintage space immersed me. It was as if time had been placed on hold.

Mick and Olga were exceptionally friendly, giving me free reign to photograph whatever and wherever I liked. I started using my camera from the hallway and couldn’t stop. By the time I had finished, my camera and I were satisfied that we had explored and captured life as it would have been lived in the period leading up to and during the war.

Using Yury’s screenplay as my premise, I wanted to capture the story of this house; the story of a warm relationship between a married English couple and the home and working environment of wartime British intelligence agent, Mick Donovan, as portrayed by Mick Hart in Yury Grozmani’s film. I was more than pleased with the end result.

Mick Hart expat Kaliningrad in 1940s mode

Mick and Olga’s house is a real museum; a tribute to the 1930s and 40s. As I moved from room to room taking pictures of this special couple from England, I was overwhelmed with delight. They are true custodians of history.