Café Culture

• Prize
  Silver in People/Life Style
• Photographer
  Yona Eligoulachvili
• Website
  http://www.yonaelig.com

I call my project, ‘Cafe Culture, a Travellers Viewpoint’. Many European cafes have a special atmosphere and my aim is to tell the stories of the people in those cafes through my vision and my lens. People usually mind their own business, share with friends, read the news or nowadays scroll on their phones or laptops. It makes them easy subjects. Simple to catch without disturbing them. I like to respect their privacy even if I am stealing a moment of their lives. I use Adobe Lightroom for my basic processing, black and white conversion, adjusting exposure, highlights, shadows and with the iPad Pro I found what I needed! I could introduce light while keeping part of the composition dark. This gives me the effect that I want. It is still clearly a photograph but has the hint of a painting whilst keeping the whole effect harmonious.

• Biography
  With my attraction to cafés, museums, their intimacy, their atmosphere and the mood that prevail (pervades them?) I take my time to capture those moments that most of the time may last for an instant. I take home those moments and work on them by playing on the light and exaggerating the natural contrast, the blacks so that the main subject or the story gets its full meaning.
• Awards
  Honorable mention,TIFA 2017 IPA 2018, International Photography awards : 2nd place in the BOOK PEOPLE award and Honorable mention for Portfolio And A single image exposed in New York Lucie Awards. SNBA, Salon des beaux Arts, 2017 and 2018 exhibition in Paris