We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ekaterina Gorbacheva a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ekaterina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I would like to share a story that shows that you never know which project or person can become very special and meaningful to one’s life and career. I have been shooting shows for a few years by the time I got a chance to shoot a show by the band Periphery. It was January 2020, just a few months before the pandemic. I ended up meeting the guys and becoming good friends with them, especially with one of the 3 guitar players, Misha Mansoor. Now fast forward to March 2020 when the COVID mayhem started and I was basically out of work. Everything I was doing at the time, shows and portrait shoots, included direct contact with people, which suddenly was no longer safe. Through the pandemic we stayed in touch with Misha, bonding over music, video games and other nerdy interests we both share. He was the one who suggested I try shooting cars, one of his big passions. And I said sure especially since I literally had nothing better to do. Now, a few years later, one of my regular gigs includes shooting cars, and I have had my photos published in Motortrend, The Drive and Hypertrash Magazine. On top of that through the years Misha has pushed me to try product photography, video work and has generally encouraged me to try different things. He also trusted me to do promo materials for his solo project Bulb and Periphery, which became some of the biggest projects I have worked on.

The reason I bring up this story is because back in 2020 I had no idea that one show would be anything more than business as usual, but it ended up leading to some of my biggest projects and an amazing creative friendship.

A similar story happened with Dennis Sanders, singer of the band Spirit in the Room. I saw their IG and loved the vibe and thought it would be cool to shoot their show. In a week or so I absolutely randomly ran into Dennis at another show, recognized him, introduced myself and asked if I could come shoot his upcoming show. He said yes. The rest, as they say, is history. This ended up being one of the most fruitful and fulfilling creative partnerships for me. And we once even played the same show, where my band opened for Spirit in the Room.

I honestly love that you never know what will happen and which gig or encounter will end up being that special one, but I love looking back and seeing all the mysterious ways that the universe works in and remind myself that any project could become the most meaningful one, you just might not know it yet.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a freelance photographer / videographer / content creator and musician in my free time. I have been doing photography professionally since 2009 and a few years back started offering video services as well. My mom got really heavily into photography when she was younger so there were always cameras in our house, and she just has this very introspective and respectful way of talking about and treating memories, that I guess subconsciously made me want to preserve the moment, or to be precise, the magic and the beauty of the moments, experiences, people, even if that beauty is not apparent at the moment.

A big chunk of my work revolves around music, I shoot live shows, do promos, work with music gear companies, be it catalog product photography or lifestyle or content. I have a Bachelor degree in music and do music on the side, which makes me a lot more attune to the needs and quirks of the industry. But I also do a lot of automotive photography, events and content creation for small businesses like local coffee or candle shops, yoga studios or individuals.

My big thing is that I try to find a personal approach and find ways to maximize the work I do with my clients. If there is a specific goal, like specific promo shots I will ask the style, the intended usage and help my clients get what they want and need or work with them to flush out the vision and help with understanding what is possible to achieve with any potential time, money, gear or any other limitations. With artists I try to help them get both beautiful and artistic media, but also make sure they have images and video for endorsements, promotions and etc… So in general I try my best to provide the best photo / video service, but also share my experience in branding and content creation if it’s helpful and needed. And if it is a bigger project I am more than happy to help with organization and finding the correct team for it.

I believe my experience in the commercial side of the photo / video business allows me to balance between pure artistic and more calculated approaches towards the art.

And of course I love when a gig transitions into a creative relationship, I find it a lot easier to work with people you know and get along with, you know their likes and dislikes, humor, concerns, etc… It always allows for the best creative expressions.

Last but not least I have studied photography and pride myself in being able to work in almost any style, but I do have things I obviously gravitate towards, so I always encourage people to check out my work first and see if you like the style and then we can go from there.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding part for me is creating motion through my work. Ripples of energy that start here and now and you never know how far they might go. Be it creating inspiring art, documenting an event, helping to promote a product, telling a story and helping someone remember that they are beautiful and important. Feeling this energy being created and released into the world as a positive force of appreciation and gratitude is the most rewarding part for me.

Now of course real life is not always this poetic and I have to make a lot of more down to earth decisions, but the moments I feel most happy are when I feel my art being appreciated and serving a bigger good, a bigger purpose.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

There is a lot of sound advice out there for growing social media, like regular posts, leaving questions in descriptions, tags, reels, etc… And I think it is all amazing advice, however, I am not the most calculating type and from my experience these are the things that worked for me:

• Firstly not just posting anything, but putting out consistent quality work that speaks for itself.
• Being yourself. Post memes, post about things you care about, be a character.

• Go out and meet real people, good old networking and making real life friends has done more for me than social media in its purely digital form.
• Don’t overthink, don’t try too hard (people notice) just do things that feel right

But most importantly don’t equate your value to your social media followers, life is way more complicated and intricate than that and unless followers on its own is your goal, putting all your energy and time into growing your following might not be necessary.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ekaterinagorbacheva.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ekaterinagorbacheva.art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ekaterinagorbacheva89
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterinagorbacheva/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sacredhalla
• Other: Print store: https://www.inprnt.com/profile/sacredhalla/ Lightroom presets: https://www.ekaterinagorbacheva.com/presets-1/lightroom-bw-presets Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ekaterinagorbacheva.art Photography FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ekaterinagorbacheva.art My Band: https://www.instagram.com/circleofsighs/