The Beautifully Twisted Photography of Nikita "Nikitzo" Zolotarev.

Russian born Nikita Zolotarev (aka Nikitzo) is both a make-up artist and commercial photographer who works and lives in Leipzig, Germany. With food, fashion and tabletop work and his credit, it is his stunning ballet and contortionist photos that I find the most compelling.




Zolotarev is best known for the calendars he has shot of world-renowned contortionist Julia Gunthel, who goes by the stage name Zlata. I'm not sure if the two are merely business partners or a couple, but both Nikita and Julia were born in Russia, both now live in Leipzig, he has taken almost all her photos for the past several years, travels with her (she has a son) and together they own and run Zlata Media.

The Telegraph covered her 2012 calendar, The Daily Mail featured her 2013 calendar and HuffPo recently covered her new 2014 Calendar, but I wanted to share with you the best from those as well as some of his lesser known photography.


above: photographer and make-up artist Nikita Zolotarev in his studio

I have chosen some of my favorites from the breadth of his work to share with you so you, too, can marvel at both the flexibility of his models,  and the beauty of his work.




















And although not featuring contorted models, here are some of his other fashion photography:






As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Nikita is also a make-up artist. Below he is applying the makeup on Julia Gunthel for the cover of her 2014 Zlata Calendar:


The final cover of the 2014 Zlata Calendar by Nikitzo:


You can purchase the 2014 calendar here

all images courtesy of Nikitzo

Pencils Packaged To Make the Portrait of Russian Mathematician Grigori Perelman.

Using a portrait of Russian Mathematician Grigori Perelman by artist Jules Julian, designers Alan Temiraev and Volodenka Zotov created a beautifully designed pencil set.

The packaging is designed so that when intact, the eight individually boxed graphite pencils make up the illustrated portrait, by Jules Julien, of the Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman, famous for solving the the legendary Poincaré Conjecture.*



The beautifully designed pencil box has a die-cut window in the shape of the portrait's head and foil stamping. The interior of the box has a color printed image of the universe.





Each graphite pencil is a different degree of lead  (2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B) and individually packaged in multi-colored four-sided boxes so that, when properly aligned, they make up the graphic portrait of Perelman seen through the die-cut window.






Grigori (or Grigory) Perelman:


*Perelman solved the legendary Poincaré Conjecture, one of the world's most difficult mathematical tasks. He was awarded the Field Medal but Perelman didn't show up to claim the award, and said he doesn't want it. He told a British newspaper, "I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest." Refusing to take the one million dollars in prize money, he remarked "Why do I need a million dollars if I can control the universe?"

Designers: Alan Temiraev, Volodenka Zotov
Illustrators: Julien Jules, Phil
images courtesy of The Bold Studio on behance, first sighted on Fubiz

Russian Born Artist Yulia Brodskaya's Paper Graphics

Russian born Yulia Brodskaya is a talented artist, graphic designer, typographer, and most impressively, paper sculptor. Her works are used in both commercial and personal applications and her paper graphics are precious 3D sculptures that incorporate all her talents into one art form. Take a look at some of them:











In light of my recent post about the popularity of Hedgehogs in design, I must share with you her hedgehog illustrations:



About the artist:


Yulia born in Russia where she started out as a fine artist producing contemporary office decoration artwork for Moscow based companies while studying for her first degree in Graphic Design. In 2004 she moved to London, earned her M.A. in Graphic Communication and since then has been busy with parallel careers as an illustrator and a freelance graphic designer.

Awards: 1st prize in the Russian Conceptual Packaging Design Competition; in recognition of typographic achievement she was elected a Member of the International Society of Typographic Designers (2006). Clients include Orange, RedBull, BBH, How2 T-shirts, International Organ Festival, ARMI, Touchnote cards and CUBE magazine.

She says "I'm constantly experimenting and evolving, always pushing my style in new directions: my greatest passion is to explore the ways of combining illustration and typography."

www.artyulia.com

A special thanks to Betsy Wills for pointing out Yulia's work to me!

Contact:e-mail: yulia@artyulia.com

If you like cut paper art, you cannot miss the amazing work of Peter Callesen and Helen Musslewhite