I love climbing and I shoot a lot of climbing competitions. But what I like the most, is the geometry of climbing walls! Sometimes the walls looks like a folded sheet of paper. I practiced origami a lot, when I was a child. Maybe this is the reason, why I love geometry, shapes, lines so much?The ‘technical inspiration’ for using the tape was Dan Vojtech and his BMX photos. I had the idea of such climbing shot already a couple of years ago, but to make it – I need huge climbing wall free of any holds. And this was the problem, because taking all the holds down is a big work and nobody will do it just for a photo. I did a test-shot in a small bouldering gym, but it was nothing – the holds were disturbing, and I couldn’t show the geometry. Time passed by, but I kept the idea in my mind.
One year ago I got to know about building of a new climbing wall in Saint-Petersburg called ‘The North Wall’. The design of the wall was amazing! It had a huge arch in the middle and lots of climbing surfaces, so the creative ideas are just flowing!
While the wall is building, the planes are empty with no hold on it, and you can see all the geometry of the wall, how the light comes on it. It was exactly what I needed!
When we came to make the shot, the wall was still under construction and about 85% ready. During the preparation we got some problems. I spent about two hours for putting the tape on the wall, but suddenly it came unstuck and started to fall down. We had spend some more hours putting it back again and fixing it with some screws. I got nervous, because it already got night and all the people from the climbing gym, the athlete, backstage team were waiting for me. But the guys from the climbing gym were extremely friendly and helpful! For them it was also a special moment, when they realized, that the wall they were building becomes alive!
When the tape was finally on the wall again, we started shooting. And it took only a few minutes, to get it done.