There’s no denying it, a picture is worth more than a thousand words. For Ukranian-born Ruslan Pelykh, video is more than a thousand images. Maybe 60 images, or frames per second. Or a fast enough shutter to achieve melancholic and breathtaking views of the New York skyline shadowed by the silky silhouette of a young woman. Pelykh has been an avid Leica Camera user, more specifically, the D-Lux 6, to shoot fashion, music and commercial videos. This time around, he shows us a series of four exquisitely done videos created for New York luxury fashion and jewelry designer Valentina Kova.

https://vimeo.com/141954261

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Ruslan explains: “I work as director, video editor and photographer. I shoot mostly fashion videos: commercial, video look-books, campaigns, and sometimes music videos.” He continues by mentioning some client work developed a couple of years ago, where his main objective was to make 2-minute long fashion films, adding a cohesive story, depicting intimate details of fabrics, style, and spirit of the collection.

© Ruslan Pelykh

“Everything is change and now people want to make the same but in 15 sec only,” Ruslan says referring to the fast-paced world of social media. “They [clients] really care about their own platforms, too, and want to get something short, beautiful and extraordinary.” He suggests to “be more creative than others and pay attention of new audience.”

For Ruslan, there’s no secret that today social media can bе have a stronger impact for clients than portfolios, collaborations and presentations. More importantly, he points out to the fact that now you can get the “job done through Instagram or Facebook and clients don’t need to go to production companies if they like your style, who you are and what you do.”

The New York-based photographer has worked with many creative beings, among those, Valentina Kova. “That’s how I met Valentina. She uses the best fabrics and her collections are based on chic design and perfect quality.” Creative endeavors may rise from serendipitous moments, including the ones you might miss when swiping left or right.

https://vimeo.com/143964649

For these fashion films, Kova didn’t want to make a traditional, clean catalog shooting because she is conscious and aware that this type of content is not interesting for followers.

“Our video project for the upcoming collection was made as a set of videos for social media,” Ruslan explains. “In each video you can see a different story, style and mood. It was a very interesting experience for me because it’s so hard to show everything during 15 seconds.” Both creatives and brands around the globe, struggle when coming up with striking and intriguing content for social media. It’s the battle of the short attention span of the Millennial generation. Your content has to be good, otherwise, it won’t transcend.

© Ruslan Pelykh

He continues, “I like the process of shooting, always experimenting with angles, movement and of course I wanted to show all skills in 15 sec, too” with a smile on his face. From 2013, Pelykh has been filming with Leica. This project was shot with a small, unpretentious Leica D-Lux 6 camera, without any additional equipment, lenses or light (no changing lenses in this model) . Creative process means a lot for me even when I shoot commercial. “All my videos are shot without steadicam, only hands and Leica. Results don’t depend from equipment, now anyone can make great videos using only a simple camera. Leica gives me unique pictures and people can’t understand what type and brand of cameras I use for video shooting. They expect to see something huge, not a pocket camera. Of course postproduction plays a big role, but this is another story …”

https://vimeo.com/143956170

Along with 5 models, Ruslan shot these video series in Upstate New York, where the landscape offers soft daylight and vivid natural colors. “We worked 5 days from 5 am to 8 pm with 5 girls and never-ending quantity of looks, from swimsuits to wedding dresses and it was great! Valentina is always open to creative process and improvisation as a result we get huge material for tens of videos.”

Trends not eternal, everything is very specific and personal, but now social media projects help me to try sometimes new, find clients and inspire people from all over the world.

https://vimeo.com/146094817

To connect with Ruslan Pelykh, please visit his website, or follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Vimeo.