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Malthe Zimakoff
@malthezimakoff
Landscape photographer based in Denmark
We are blessed to be living in an era where people have understood the power of colors and their effect on human life. Colors have been used for healing purposes since ages and they play a major role in setting up our mood, emotions, feelings and state of mind. Our guest is one of those unique artists that knows pretty well how to play with colors in order to captivate the eyes of the viewer!
It is quite hard not to fall in love with the amazing work that Malthe has been sharing with the community. You can easily identify his pictures in a blink of an eye. His art is certainly distinctive, full of colors and surprising compositions. Today Malthe (better known in Instagram as @malthezimakoff) is one of the most creative and original artists in Instagram, always inviting travelers and photographers to find themselves in the unknown!
In order to understand better Malthe’s lifestyle and photography we asked him 14 questions. The following was the outcome!
Welcome Malthe! The first thing that quickly called my attention are the powerful colors of your art. I think this is part of who you are as an artist nowadays.
When doing photography you only have so many ways to make your own personal mark on a photo. I think I have always seen what I do as an hybrid between photography and painting. I want the photo to have a distinct essence of personality. It’s one that I still work very hard to develop, and one that changes constantly. I think my style’s origins comes from the fact that I started my photography in the winter streets of Copenhagen. In Denmark we have no mountains, we’re as flat as you get. Which is why you don’t see a lot of landscape photographers originating from here. So when you don’t have the grand mountains, waterfalls or anything like that to catch people’s attention, you seek other ways. What we do have is colorful buildings. I tried to focus a lot on colors and perspectives, and as I transitioned into travel photography I took these things with me.
People discover photography through different channels. What stimulated your interest for landscape photography?
I think I’ve always been fascinated by creating worlds. When I was young I would code my own video games, and I would learn basic programming and modding. I also compose my own music. When you take landscape photography you can get a sense of layers, depth & exploration. You can tell the story of grand adventures, of worlds that are out there waiting for us to be explored. When it comes to what exactly stimulated me to start photography, the story probably has an unusual start. I’ve always been pursuing creativity but two years ago I was studying business administration and project management (which I am actually completing this semester, thank god). During the first year of studies my little brother got diagnosed with cancer. As we didn’t have the equipment to treat one so young he was flown to Houston to receive treatment.
"Whilst I was there over Christmas with my family I think I had the realization of my mortality. I should do what I like now, and what inspires me right now. Not dream of things I could do, somewhere; sometime"
I started composing my own piano music and started walking around the streets of Houston with my Mom’s iphone to take pictures. As a way to cope, but also as a way to grow and you know just fucking do it. It turns out my friends liked my simple photos of streets, palm trees etc. So when I came home I kept going. Eventually with a better camera, and eventually also outside of Denmark – as travelling was something that I felt was the next necessary to grow as a person.
Fortunately my little brother is healthy now!
How do you sustain a life full of travels? Is there any trick or tip you can share with us?
I’ve always been a person who gets his joy from money saved, not spent. Trying to optimize the cost of traveling is fun to me. When traveling living and transportation are the greatest costs. I always look for links. If I am in this area, which areas closeby have what nature, and how cheap is transportation etc. My biggest recommendation to people is to be creative with these two costs. Find a way to generate value for hotels, motels & travel agencies. It doesn’t have to be the obvious Instagram influencer way. Also teaming up in groups of nomadic creatives is a great way to increase your value without increasing the cost of hotel / car dealerships very much.
What is your approach when it comes to planning your trip and finding your ideal locations?
My clock is sunrise/sunset based. I only take photos at these times. So I will plan the different locations optimal to the location of the sun. I’ve always preferred not take photos at very mainstream areas. This means I will often try to look at the locally marked “vistas” and spots. I will ask the local people when eating, search Tripadvisor, Google, Instagram and local magazines. My approach is very adhoc but I hope to get a little better at planning these things in advance partially. I like the adhoc approach but sometimes it’s just too much when there’s a lot of things to manage already.
As I mentioned before, your art has unique characteristics! What is the first thing you do when editing a photo and how much time do you normally spend on Lightroom?
I have a very intuitive workflow. I will never use a preset. And every time I edit a picture 50% of the time is experimenting and trying new things that most of the times will end up not being included in the edit. I think I just really enjoy the subtle nuances of discovering new techniques to do things. This is why I will do a basic overhaul in lightroom and then quickly pop it into photoshop where I feel the tools are much more dynamic and flexible – even if I will do no manipulation whatsoever and only do things that could be done in lightroom. I am just a big fan of the whole layer system of photoshop. When I am happy and have time I will edit a photo 2-3 hours. Sleep on it, and use 2 hours more on it. When I feel uninspired or when I don’t have time I will use maybe 2-3 hours only. Which I feel is too little when you also want to improve and experiment.
Professional photographers know that being successful is a combination of having the right equipment, knowing how and when to use it and then having photographic vision (creativity). You have been to places that have been photographed by thousands of people, yet you seem to be able to capture fleeting moments with unique moods and emotion. How do you ensure this constant creativity?
One of the things I would argue is actually that I haven’t been to very mainstream places. Many of my photos are not the classic instagram location. However, I do look forward to going to the places as well. First of all, forget everything you know. If you’ve seen 1000 pictures from this one place from this one angle – don’t walk over there first. I always try to combine elements so I will always look around for subjects that can be part of my story.
"If I see a beautiful lake my first thought is, who is looking at this beautiful lake? Is it a flower, is it a rock? I will look for my subject"
In this way you ensure you’re telling a story and not just photographing a lake. I like that relationship between things. It’s really the classic russian phenomenon from film. You have a lake at its own, that doesn’t tell a story. You have a lake and some flourishing flowers? That’s telling a story. Or a lake and a person doing something. For me it’s all about the story which is something I hope to improve on in the future!
As a photographer, I am sure that you feel attached to all your photos. All your pictures represent unique moments of your life. However, among your works, do you have any picture that you really like? Which is your favorite photo?
Honestly I don’t have one. I would have to say the next one, as the magic for me is in the process of creation. When I look at my photos I always start thinking of how I would change that with the improved knowledge I have now haha… I think I might be damaged in that way.
Can you tell us the most notorious anecdote that ever happened to you being outdoors?
Ah well, a month ago me and my friend Daniel took a cable car down a valley surrounded by water. The cable car would close at sunset, but we had been told we could climb up the valley through a hike.
"So we thought no problem, we will do the climb after the sunset. Turns out the valley was a deserted village. No signs for any hike, only a maze of deserted villages"
No signs for any hike, only a maze of deserted villages. We walked around in the darkness with wild cats jumping out in front of us making weird noises all the time. In the end we gave up on finding the hike up. It turns out that to get to the hike you had to go partially out to the water walk on some rocks and then there would be a hidden entrance… that would have been nice to know. But we didn’t. To make it even more creepy there was this one house that didn’t seem as abandoned as the rest. Or house is maybe the wrong word, it was a little square and had no windows… but there seemed to come music from the inside. Super creepy.
Anyway eventually Daniel gets one bar on the phone and we manage to call our hotel reception, who call some friends. They try to morse code to us with their lights, but we only have our iphone lights to flash back up… Obviously not very effective. Some hours later we end up getting a very creepy ride up with the cable car. One party up there yelling at us for not returning before the cable car closed, the other apologizing for that anyone would send us down there in the first place. I’ve always had confidence in touristy areas having well marked signs for hikes, so this was an eye opener for that… a wild experience. We had already for a place that were going to make our lodge (a bench which wasn’t exposed to rain) and the food rationing had been discussed.
Among all the extraordinary places you have been to, what landscape impressed you the most?
I’ve honestly not traveled that much yet. I got my first decent camera 1 and half year ago so everything is still new to me. But hands down Madeira, has been a gemstone in disguise. Went there twice now in collaborations and the place is so magical. I am finishing my study as mentioned this summer, and I plan to go all on this nomadic project with photography. Just buy a ticket out there and only come home if I run out of options, so the grand adventure is just around the corner for me.
We hear about the Five-P’s that together make a successful photographer – Purpose, Patience, Practice, Preparation and Passion. Did these 5 principles apply to your photographic progress?
Purpose can be seen in many ways. The overall purpose and the purpose of the single shot. For me it’s very logically interlinked, if I didn’t find both an overarching purpose and a introspective purpose with shooting photos I wouldn’t be doing it. Then it wouldn’t be a passion for me. In the same ways if I was not passionate about everything there would be no purpose. Since I do have a strong passion for this project, practicing and preparation and passion comes very easily. I will say that yes, sometimes preparation is very important when you learn exactly what you want to shoot. But for the first year of doing photography you should only be fueled by practice and passion. Just go shoot everywhere all the time without preparation.
"Later on you will start to realize what preparation needs to be done to achieve the things you want"
Learning a new skill requires practice and time, but useful tips can accelerate our learning process! What are the 3 most important pieces of advice you would give to young talent pursuing a career as a photographer?
Go out there everyday and shoot. But always aim to do better than last time and never settle in feeling happy with that one shot. Always think, how can I improve it? And make sure you use all resources: youtube is a great one of this, but also find communities and friends you can learn from. In the end just doing something photo related every day is a good rule. Never feel contempt, always seek criticism. But stay true to your own vision.
Is there any artist/photographer who has inspired your art? Can you name three?
I would say that an early one was @maxrivephotography for the sheer audacity and grandness of everything. Then lately I would say @emmettsparling for the elegance and balance. I also find a lot of inspiration from people doing different things like digital artist @visualsofjuluis for his immense creativity and strategic scope with what he is doing.
Any new projects coming up or countries you will be visiting soon?
First project is finishing my university this year and internship. Then off to see the world. But I expect to visit germany/italy on a road trip as well as norway during spring/early summer as well. Maybe also faroe islands & iceland. After that my plan right now is heading east to asia and take everything as it comes. A true adventure haha.
Can you fix the world in one sentence?
Free pizza.
No but seriously, if I could I would definitely have told you. I think so at least? Or maybe the world is not meant to be fixed.
