Finding the Right Light
by Nicola Abela Garret for EBM Magazine
If you’ve been flicking through EBM Magazine over the years, you’ve also had the pleasure of digesting the impeccable photography of its very own Editor-in-Chief. Just as she curates the stories and personalities of this publication, so does Julia Boikova supply a significant percentage of the magazine’s imagery. We take a closer look at her process, and what compels this multi-talented individual to press the shutter button.
This is my third collaboration with the effervescent yet stoic photographer and editor. Once again, our crafts collide, and my wielded words will merge with her honed visuals. More often than not, her results instruct and inspire the text, but as stand-alones, her photographs tell their own narrative, very much in their own right. Herself immersed in the world of clothing and style, the feel for fashion in her work is palpable. With a degree from the London College of Fashion, Julia’s angles are sharp, the poses she captures are androgynous, and she loves a good old black and white.
But although the elements of the fashion formula are plentiful in her work, Julia will always find the right light for the everyday. “I look for composition! Usually, when I walk past something or someone on the daily and I see a certain composition and how the light falls on it, it makes me freeze and I’d want to capture that. Of course, if the subject is interesting and looks different, it’s always a bonus.”
Her journey with photography goes all the way back to her teens, when her father had shown her how to use an analogue camera when she was seventeen. “I was quite fascinated by the manual process. It’s about finding the right balance, although I was terrible at it up until recently when it came to digital. I somehow couldn’t relate analogue to digital, as this has way more options.”
Julia loves to converse. Our phone calls have never been shorter than an hour, and there hasn’t been a moment where I haven’t been sucked in by her passion. She is a woman who knows exactly what she wants, and I know for a fact that she doesn’t tolerate mediocrity. Oddly enough, I see all of this translated in her work and how she captures life. I see her sense of style, her energy and how she looks at the world; always in search of something that will make you look. She’ll take an ordinary, or indeed extraordinary space or object, and magnify it. Her angles want you to take in the enormity of what she’s seeing, and how certain spaces and climates make one feel small.
What is your intention when capturing what's in front of you? I ask. “It depends on what it is. If it’s food, I want to make it look tempting and tasty. If it’s an interior, it has to look like you want to be there feeling cosy or maybe even intimidated, but nonetheless wanting to experience it.” And people? “If it’s a person, the photo has to look like they’re in front of you, and you have a special connection to them. I want to transmit my own fascination with the subject.”
Speaking of capturing people, I turn the subject to the professional selfie, as it were. Having been a model herself, her own features are indeed striking, with eyebrows that could launch an army and a jawline that many are currently paying to have. “I didn’t like photographing myself in the past. It used to be a challenge to come out looking okay.” I raise my own arched eyebrows at this; how could someone so photogenic ever encounter this issue? “You have to find your angles. I don’t take photos of myself often, but I guess it is a study in both ways - how I can look better and how to use light better. It's a fun little exercise.”
Julia will be clicking away at her camera at any opportune moment, and Malta provides her with her favourite natural phenomena – limestone and sea water. “I know quite a lot of photographers don’t like natural light, as it’s hard to control. But I think natural light has such a special magic, especially at the right time of the day. One thing I love about limestone is its lovely reflection and how it creates a light box kind of effect. This goes for anything on the water, as well.”
Although I marvel at her work, and it is undoubtedly what gives EBM its lustrous quality, she feels there’s still a way to go for her. “Light took me a while to understand, and I can’t say I’ve completely mastered it just yet. I suppose I’ve created some level of excellence in my own head, and I’m always trying very hard to reach it.” If, at this point, her work isn’t mastery, then I’m very curious to see what will come next.