Meet Diana Badmaeva | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Diana Badmaeva and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Diana, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
Sometimes everything does not turn out as we planned, and it seems that there is no point in moving further and it is worth giving up, but if you nevertheless continued on your way, then in the end you see that all your failures led you precisely to your goal. If your heart says that this is your business, it brings you happiness, and your soul smiles, then you cannot refuse, even if no one around you believes in you, or you will be criticized, never give up, go forward, even when everything is working out not as it should, you don’t know which door will lead you to your goal. And I always remember that if a door closes somewhere in my life, then another door will surely open, which will lead me further.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My path to photography began with the birth of children, like all parents, I wanted to preserve more childhood moments, because they grow so quickly. Then my husband gave me the first digital camera for my birthday, and probably at that moment I realized what I wanted to do, for which I am very grateful to him. This camera is still kept with us, in spite of the fact that it does not work, but thanks to it I saw how beautiful the world is in all its manifestations. I can’t say that I like to photograph one thing, although of course, my photographs of silhouettes with the stolen sun at sunset are the most popular and scattered all over the world, I am very happy about this, I received so many letters with pleasant words and I am very grateful to them, and I I am proud that I have inspired other photographers with this shooting, who began to make the same photo stories of silhouettes at sunset, someone found himself in this particular technique and I am very happy about that. But as for me, I really love silhouette shooting, but I also really like to shoot nature, people, animals, the macro world, subject shooting and much more. Many people tell me that since your shooting at sunset is the most popular, why are you shooting something else when you can only shoot these stories? No, my interests are much wider than this, our world is so huge and diverse, nature is so unique and beautiful, so I cannot choose one thing. It is also very popular on Instagram to have photographs made and processed in the same color scheme, they also often write to me about this that you need to adhere to one style in order to be recognizable, yes, it is beautiful and has a right to exist and finds its own viewer, but this not my story. Does the world have one color, shade or style? No. We live on a planet that is painted with all colors and shades, and I cannot imagine how one can choose from all this diversity. When I leave the house, wherever I go, I see that even the grass under my feet has a unique shape, I see insects that have their own small world, I see trees and their shapes, the sky and the sun, I am the person who is spirit from the beauty of the sunset, I never cease to be surprised and I know that our world will never cease to delight and inspire me.  If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in the south of Russia, in the small Buddhist Republic of Kalmykia. This is the hottest region in our country, the temperature here in summer can reach 50 degrees Celsius. We are located in the zone of steppes, semi-deserts and deserts, but despite this, we have a unique pine forest with an area of ​​40 hectares, which was planted 47 years ago, no one believed that this was possible in our region, but people created a miracle and this forest really is unique and has no analogues in the world with a similar semi-desert climate. We live next to him and love to relax there with my family, and here I would take a friend with me, enjoy the clean air, walk through the forest and spend the night in a tent, as well as meet a beautiful sunset and dawn, and watch hundreds of young wild eagles learn to fly over a pine forest. And in the spring, our republic is famous for the fact that wild Schrenk tulips bloom in the steppes, which have a variety of colors, red, pink, yellow, purple. The whole steppe in April is strewn with them and creates a bright multi-colored carpet, mixed with wild irises. I would like to share this beauty with a friend, have a picnic in the middle of these flowers and enjoy their sweet scent. Then we would go to our old Buddhist temple, to a place of power and energy, which was illuminated by the XIV Dalai Lama, where we would walk among the stupas, and sit on a bench, giving it peace and tranquility. And then we went to our reserve “Black Lands” where the most ancient representatives of the mammoth fauna, the Saigas, live. These unique animals are under threat, because their herds were exterminated by humans, but now our reserve is fighting poachers and protecting saigas, and their number is increasing every year. I think it would be a great stay with a friend.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Of course my family, and my idol and mentor was my grandmother Agrafena. She is for me an example of incredible fortitude and boundless love. As a little girl, she went through Stalin’s repression, hunger, cold and the loss of loved ones, but this did not break her. She alone raised her 5 children, who, thanks to her work, did not need anything. She was never afraid of work and worked a lot, and in addition sold incredible flowers that she herself grew in greenhouses, and also kept a garden and a vegetable garden where she grew fruits and vegetables, grapes still bear many fruits, despite the fact that he is very many years. When her diabetes began to progress, the doctors decided to amputate both her legs, they could not save them, but they could still save her, but she refused and left the hospital for home, and then, thanks to her faith and fortitude, she herself, unconventional medicine cured her legs and until the last day, she never gave up, endured unbearable pain, but was not broken. She is not with us, but she will always be the strongest person in our family, an example of how willpower, faith in myself and in God helps on the way to the goal, and most importantly, it is thanks to her that I am not afraid to start something new, and try to be strong and believe in myself.

Instagram: @dia_leto

Image Credits
Diana Badmaeva