Name? Alexi Zavialoff. Age? 29 Job/ Position? Freelance Photographer/videographer Hometown? Opel Vectra/Praha/rest of the world. Website? www.souledhere.com What was your first setup? My grandfather's minolta srt101 with 3 lenses. Pretty lucky! What are you using nowadays? I specially like using all kinds of old cameras, sparticularly russian ones, combined with Zeiss optics. Xpan, Hexar/Leica lenses. Apple computers, some Japanese reflex for action, Pocket Wizards. Main influences / sources of inspiration? Boris Mikhailov, A. Rodchenko, Gursky, Polke, Stéphane Couturier, Anselm Kieffer, Hiroshi Satoh, Sugimoto, J. Koudelka, R. Frank, Chris Cunnigham, J.E. Atwood, A. Serrano, J. Wall, B. Plossu, Garcia Alix, Nancy Burson, enough? Never!!! I need music as much as I need foodŠ These birds in the park, the ones that inspired Olivier Messiaen Favourite magazine? Big magazine , Adbusters, Lodown, Gasbook, Grand Street, Photos Nouvelles, Theme Parc, Purple, Redux, Numero zine (Fin), thisisamagazine.com Up-and-coming photographer? Tuukka Kaila. Current exhibitions? In Praha. with Divus/Umelec contemporary art studio and magazine, some time after I manage to go back to Tirana this year. We are setting up for exhibit in Proud. London. With the kingpin squad. Kingpin mag. Current projects? A documentary on a trip from Praha to Istanbul going through Kosovo and Albania by car for 2 art Biennales. Photos and video altogether. Shooting in Russia since 94 and still working on it... Though I need to move there for a while to really understand things. Started documenting the eastern hiphop scene for 3 years already, with various realizations through this. What's the most annoying part of your job, if there is such part? Same as other people, I just know I can't complain in the end, because I do what I like almost all the time. Were you trained in photography or was it just a case of trial and error? In case of any school, do you recommend it? I'm 100% selftaught. I studied music for a while and ended up making pictures, though the cycle is about to be complete, since I started doing music videos. School is good for people who need a structure. Meeting people in different countries and vary the languages, experiences and subjects has been the best school for me. Any handy hints for a rookie photographer? Maybe it's time to use scanners and computers with the same approach like when we customize our cameras and flashes, this before we all end up with the same colors. Digital Organic!