Siberian Photographer Turns Low Budgets into Fashion Dreams

Limited resources are no obstacle for Arman Livanov’s visions.

December 3, 2015, 2:50pm

Images courtesy the artist

Talent can be found in even the remotest of places. Take Arman Livanov, a self-described fashion project creator, who was born in desolate Siberia but has not allowed his distance from the mainstream fashion world to stifle his creativity. He is completely self-taught and is responsible for almost every stage of his projects—he does the hair, makeup, style, accessories, retouching and even sometimes make the clothes for his shoots. He finds models amongst ordinary people and makes clothes from any resources he can get his hands on.

Livanov's website is full of photos in different fashion styles, from commercial to haute couture, mocked up as if they were already in Vogue and i-D where they'd look quite at home. He expertly creates fantasy winter wonderlands and uses the natural beauty of the Russian countryside to create nuanced and sophisticated work. Despite limited resources, Livanov’s shoots are quite complex. “Our mind and our fantasy need multiplicity, intricacy and superfluity to keep aesthetic sensitivity,” he tells The Creators Project. Though it is difficult for him to showcase his work to the fashion world, he is not deterred. “Fashion is my inspiration, my passion and my lifestyle,” he says. “Fashion and art are not only existing ideas of beauty and style, it is also about breakage of routine and an opportunity to see the world from a new perspective.”

The Creators Project asked him some questions to understand his process and relationship to fashion:

The Creators Project: What sparked your interest in fashion?

Arman Livanov: When I was a small boy, the knocking sound of women’s heels excited my mind; I felt the power of beauty and style, I enjoyed looking fashion magazines with girls and boys wearing fashionable and designer’s clothes. It was Post-Soviet Union Russia and people hadn’t even heard about Vogue magazine or such brands as Valentino, Dior or Chanel, but even here people wanted to look beautiful and stylish. I collected all magazines related to clothes and fashion industry. I have a lot of hobbies: grease-paint, cinematography, medicine, foreign languages; but my primary passion is high fashion.

How do you find recourses, come up with shoot concepts?

I appreciate attractiveness even with negative connotation: maybe you are not sure that you like it, but you can’t stop thinking about it, it impresses and mystifies you. I also love pictorial art, especially paintings of Renaissance and Baroque periods, their characters are very expressive and the stories capture your imagination.

As for the resources, that is the most burning question for me. I appreciate quality and cultivated talent, but these are rare things here in my country, so I seldom collaborate with designers, decorators, hair-stylist etc.

How is your artistic taste vision complemented by staying in Russia instead of trying to fight through the slush of the mainstream fashion world?

I was born in a severe country, which was out of the fashion world. And it would be difficult to predict my fashion career if I had been Italian or French. Nevertheless, such isolation and remoteness from world-famed couture houses helped me find my own style. Because I didn’t have sufficient resources to put my ideas into life, I tried to do it by myself, so I became a photographer and fashion project creator, who can do all the stages of the photo projects: makeup, hairstyle, clothes, decoration of the place, shooting and post-production. Lack of resources in Siberia trained me as a professional and strengthened my principles.

Many people can’t accept my vision, for many of them my photos are too weird and models are odd. But for me it means that I achieved my goal: I made them feel different and bright emotions and realize the diversity of the things around them.

Your budget shoots and limited resources turn out intricate and high quality work. Do you think that the complexity found on most high-fashion shoots is superfluous?

I love extravagant characters and intricate details which seem to be out of place and concept, but every detail, every color and pose has its own sense, combined they form the united impression. Look at the works of Tim Walker, this famous American original is crazy about exaggerated things and it works within his photos.