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My name is Stefan, a branding and graphic designer for over twenty years, with a growing passion for photography in the last ten years. So basically I’m 50/50 design and photography, 100% freelance. I have a wide range of interests and I’m known to try anything and everything if I find it intriguing or inspiring. Some things stick, some eventually don’t, but I feel that’s the best way to find your place, and if for some reason you can’t find it – create it from scratch.
What is your favorite thing to do on a weekend?
It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a regular weekend, but I guess the most weekend-type thing I do is spend time with my significant other and play with my basketball rec-league team. Apart from that, the freelance life doesn’t really do regular weekday schedules, but I love it!
One thing you cannot live without?
One thing would be impossible for me to pick, I’ve never been good at this sort of list thing LOL. But let’s say my top five are coffee, basketball, art, the internet and my girlfriend, of course. In no particular order.
Who is your favorite artists (Non NFT)? Who is your favorite NFT artist?
My favorite non NFT artist list is huge, no way I can list my favorite. I follow so many creatives, so many designers and photographers, I even sometimes follow a series or a project, without even knowing who the author is, that’s just how my mind works. I’m just gonna mention one person – Nikolay Ivanov, a local Bulgarian sensual and boudoir photographer that was one of my biggest inspirations and maybe the reason I started shooting what I mostly shoot today – https://www.instagram.com/ivanov.ph_
As for NFT artists – I’m kinda new to the space, been participating for a little less then a month now, but some of the people I look up to definitely are https://twitter.com/ugur35mm, https://twitter.com/darklunni, https://twitter.com/photofeminine, https://twitter.com/mzkvisuals, just to name a few.
What made you pursue NFT art?
It was something that a friend of mine mentioned one day and kinda stuck with me for a while, I later on managed to get that same friend to spend some time and explain in more detail what NFT means. After that it was a rabbit-hole of information, Gary Vee talks, new platforms, twitter chats and here I am, trying to see if this space is right for me and for the art that I love to create. I’ve had some minor success on Instagram and Patreon, but the NFT space was something that felt very different and interesting, so obviously I had to see what the fuss was all about.
What is the one piece of NFT art you wish you had purchased but missed out on?
I totally love some of the images posted by the artists I mentioned above, but as a relative newcomer, my collecting days are still sometime in the future. I hope soon I will be able to do that alongside sharing my own work, but for now I am focusing on getting familiar with the space and finding my people and my spot.
If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go?
I’v always had a soft spot for London, and if I can ever go back, I’ll probably never leave, I love the city, the fuss, the vibrant culture, the variety of peopel and the craziness altogether. Apart from that, visiting the United States and Australia has always been a dream of mine.
Projects Stefan is working on
Define Decadent
Define Decadent is a personal project that I started doing a few years ago, focused on fun and the universal appeal and of the female form. It’s a series of lifestyle-themed photoshoots, with a fun atmosphere and a general desire to present life in a fun and uplifting manner. It’s a reminder that we don’t need to take everything so seriously and also that even smart and confident women like to have fun sometimes and take photos in their underwear. Nudity is absolutely natural and beautiful, and it doesn’t have to be over-sexualized and viewed as something indecent and immoral. It can be presented as a delicate art form and should be celebrated as an inspiring and refreshing take on modern erotica.
Urban Saints
– 0.3 ETH 1/1s
In 2009, when totally unplanned and out of the blue I picked up an old second hand Olympus camera, I decided to reach out to a friend of mine and spend the afternoon taking photos. No plan, no concepts, just having fun and improvising as we go. At the end of the day we had a few hundred cool shots and we had a blast, not knowing that anything would come out of the images. A couple of days later, when I was going through the photos, a few images caught my attention. It was a series of portraits in front of this cool old abandoned doorway. It had created a cool frame, with my friend right in the center of it. And that’s how Urban Saints got created. More than 11 years later, I have shot over 140 portraits, countless new friends and connections, a gallery showing, a few TV appearances, numerous unused locations and a series, that will probably stay with me forever.
Symbolism
Have you noticed how NFTs have become more and more status symbols and statement pieces? We don’t flex a phone, a watch or a car, but we flex JPGs, pixelated cats and 3D animations? The brands we use to define us are changing and brand new digital idols are emerging. It’s become the hot new thing. And that’s my satiric take on it. Let’s have some fun in the process!
Anything else you’d like to share?
I am confident in what I do and the things I create, and I feel the best way in approaching any new venture is to be yourself, and attract your crowd, rather than conform to trends and change your creative output to suit a certain niche or marketplace. All signs point to a huge upswing and potential growth for #NFTPhotography in this space, and I feel it’s only a matter of time. Since what I do might also be considered niche within the photography world in itself, sometimes I feel I am fighting two separate battles – once for promoting and trying to popularize photography in the NFT space, and then trying to find my way around the vast sea of landscape, adventure and street photography, that’s dominating the scene at the moment, but it is what it is, that’s what I do and I’m gonna stick with it. I’m staying positive and hoping for the best.
Where you can find Stefans work:
Link to Website
Social links:
https://www.instagram.com/define.decadent
https://twitter.com/imstefanvasilev
NFT marketplace links:
https://opensea.io/stefanvasilev
https://foundation.app/@stefanvasilev
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