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Pavel Che
@iampavelche
Photographer based in Russia
To begin with, my name is Pavel, I am 34 years old and a retired military man from Russia. For 15 years I gave my life to a profession that I did not choose myself, instead, the profession chose me.
During my service, I visited many places on the territory of Russia, even the most remote, but my work did not allow me to enjoy all the beauty of what I saw – not to imagine capturing it on camera. And so two years ago I quit my job to finally spend all my free time with my wife and children, and make all my plans and dreams come true.
At the very top of my wishlist was travel. My wife and I have long wanted to visit a bunch of interesting places in Russia and abroad, and whenever possible, to visit all these places with our children so that they would be exposed to the splendor of our world from birth – as little as they are.
"While photography as a hobby appeared in my life not so long ago, the craving for travel and wildlife was already present in my early childhood."
When every Soviet child wanted to become an astronaut and pilot, driving a spaceship or an airplane, I imagined myself at the helm of the ship. To be precise, it was the ship of Jacques Cousteau’s team and I would be the one in the famous red cap, steering toward new adventures. It was my favorite show; I never missed an episode under any circumstances.
My grandfather, who was an oceanologist, and my grandmother, a biologist, have been huge influencers in my love for nature and discovery. Always when I visited them, instead of children’s fairy tales my grandfather told me about his travels and expeditions, and instead of going to an attraction park my grandmother and I were studying the animals inhabiting our planet together. My favorite books were the many picture encyclopedias where I could scroll through for hours.
"I still regret not following in their footsteps, but as they say, everything is still ahead, life has just started!"
My parents too shared a love for nature. We often went hiking together and my holidays from school were spent in the countryside; my dad always took me fishing and I loved to go mushroom picking with my mom. Probably this is the reason I have always tried to get away from the big city to rather find a quiet secluded place. To be somewhere in a forest or on the shore of a lake, where there is no bustle of the big city and you can be alone with your thoughts. With my wife, we’ve found the perfect place for that.
"We now live in a secluded place where we built a small house, and where we spend most of our time peacefully with our children."
Of course, all this would not have happened if my wife and I had not shared the same desires. Our vision and goals fit on one and the same list; she is a creative person and for her, photography is not only a hobby but also work. She was and remains my inspiration and muse in my creative activity, as well as the first teacher in my new role.
And in between photography and travel, I dedicate time to sports which allows me to keep myself in shape. I set myself goals for sports which I always achieve through long and exhausting training. The military has surely played a role here, and sport is still an integral part of my life today. It makes that I can enjoy life in full capacity and energy. Photography is now complementing and enhancing that.
All of our lives we have been trying to earn a living, forgetting about life itself. This applied to many of us I believe. I want to live here and now, I want to enjoy every day spent on our planet, I want to see the most secret places created by nature because for me there is no better architectural monument than the one that was created by nature itself.
My journey of photography and travel has just begun, of course starting with really discovering the territory of my country. Russia is an endless museum of natural exhibits. There’s much left to see, though so far the most amazing thing that I have witnessed is Lake Baikal in winter. There are no words to describe this magical appearance. It evokes a deep love for life; seeing its greatness once, you will remember it forever. It’s a place I will return to as many times as possible. I am sure that I will still encounter many more magical places, but for now, I definitely give the first place to Baikal.
Now I finally realized that you can and should do what you love, strive for your dream without listening to anyone else, I hope to convey this through my photography and inspire other people. I want to invite my audience into my atmospheric world and my philosophy with my photographs, so that at least for a minute they can forget about all the problems of the big world and imagine, dream, visualize, that they are now there, where I have been.
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