Over the last few years, Sasha Vasiljev has put in an annual appearance at SSCC, either as speaker or judge. Many of us still remember his extraordinary images and the stories of his treks in Nepal and the Himalayas. The portraits of people he encountered on those adventures were as memorable as his breathtaking landscapes. Those portraits were on exhibit last year at the Watergate Gallery downtown, where Sasha regularly exhibits. In that welcoming space, we’ve also seen Sasha’s delicate seascapes, his evocative images of the cloud forests of Ecuador, as well as a series of finely crafted still lifes that frame views from his home in Washington’s tallest building.
What magical places will Sasha introduce us to in his presentation this month? You’ll have to come to the October 2 meeting to find out! By way of background, Sasha is not only an award-winning photographer but is also codirector of Nature & Photography Tours, LLC (www.NaturePhotographyTours.com), which is a boutique tour company specializing in nature, culture, and photography eco-travel. As an educator, he is on the faculty of The Washington School of Photography and Washington Studio School.
In Sasha’s own education, he first concentrated on fine art but ultimately received his degree in biology with a major in botany. He went on to curate major tropical orchid collections in his native Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. While living in Moscow, he had the opportunity to study photography under the mentorship of distinguished Russian landscape photographer, Boris Mashkov.
Since moving to the US over a decade ago, Sasha’s work has been exhibited in galleries and acquired by many private collections internationally. He is honored by having several of his images in the permanent collection at the Embassy of the Republic of Costa Rica in Washington, DC. His work has also been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and has been published in numerous magazines, such as Nature’s Best Photography Magazine, Fine Gardening, Washingtonian, Orchids Magazine, and Ecuador Infinito Magazine.
In 2015, Sasha plans eco-photo tours to Ecuador in March and August, to Cost Rica in June, to Nepal in April and September, and more prosaically, to Maine in June. See http://naturephotographytours.com/ for all the details. In addition to these tours, Sasha also offers numerous workshops locally as well as private instruction. The workshops cover such topics as headshots and portraits, editing with Lightroom, and two levels of photography basics. For complete workshop descriptions and registration information, go to: http://alexandervasiljev.com.