why-walking

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Hello everybody!

My name is Alexey Sukhopar. Alex for short and for you all.

I live in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, and work as a photographer.

I am interested in traveling, visiting places I have never been before and I am fond of sports tourism. Earlier, I have tried other forms of art such as painting and drawing, and am looking for new ways of self-expression.

In fact, buying a camera was like buying a new brush and paints. Photography itself is just a step in presenting the feelings and emotions that one is overwhelmed with by getting to know this strange but wonderful world. An attempt to connect classical pictorial art and photography finally resulted in stylizing of photos made during my multiple visits to India. All works were created in an unusual manner. It just happened accidentally, by mistake during an experimental attempt, and then it was developed. Virtually, the result exceeded expectations! This artistic manner enabled me to reflect in paintings the India that I saw during the whole journey, its colours and human feelings.

It was "India from the heart"— the exhibition that broke all the rules that are so predictable. It was the "mistake" I was looking for, and it became an open door to the new world where there are no borders between painting and photography.

India that I dreamed of as a kid was drawing itself by my hand through my feelings and dreams. I have read somewhere that people go to India answering a Call. I can confirm that I heard this Call all my life as a hankering for something that had no reasonable explanation, something that was beyond people's mind.

I was interested in psychology, philosophy, martial arts, yoga, and then was seriously engaged in athletics. It made me look for that what was beyond me and my boundaries, something invisible. But I could feel it as the heartbeat. And my heart was beating faster in this part of the Earth. It was there what was in my mind. India just brought me sense of peace, stopped the race of my life. It calmed and made me look inside myself—into my heart.

During my first visit to India, when I was standing in Delhi and breathing India, I realized that my search is finished. I am here! I had no more questions. Everything was quite clear. I do not have to do anything, just breath and live with my whole heart.

Every time I go to India I meet myself.

I have never studied in an art school, and have no professional education. Every time while trying to get education in the humanities I was disappointed with systems and targets of education. It was difficult for me to stay there because the answers I was looking for I found by my own. I did not need to look for teachers. They were always there by my side: my friends, relatives, people around me. The Children, the Sun and the Sky, the whole world, the Dreams, and of course, India.

Every time I am asked for how long I have been photographing or painting -- my answer is from the moment I opened my eyes. From the very moment of my birth.

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