Between serial-killers, playboy bunnies and firing squads in Afghanistan: the Russian photographer @valerinistratov has seen it all and he knows exactly how it feels.

Concerning your work: What is the most memorable picture you took so far?

I think it would have to be one of my black and white images, perhaps one from my project Forest-Steppe. Two photographs stand out to me, one showing a picnic in a grove and the other showing an old lady in a mask on the road. But, to be honest, I’ve never thought about my work in like that, because I believe my most memorable photograph is one that is still to be taken.

How would you describe the evolution of your own work: where have you been growing, where is the difference between your early work and your recent work?

My earliest works aren’t based on the art of photography, but are more opportunistic. Later, I started to incorporate narrative and started to think more conceptually. I aim to be an author, an artist or a poet, with a camera. And I hope I have now succeeded. As a result, my current work has a great personal significance for me, I’m fascinated by it and that’s very important for me.

Tell us more about working in the USSR in the nineties: You worked as a news photographer covering the dramatic events of the fall of the USSR for international media. What are the craziest scenarios you witnessed? Tell us a bit about one or two of these scenarios, please.

Serendipity has been very important in my life. I accidentally became a witness to the worst aspects of the fall of the USSR. I took photos in nearly all of the military conflicts which took place in what used to be the USSR. As a child, I was shy and timid, and I worked hard to overcome this. At the same time, I was curious and always questioning everything. This sometimes annoyed my relatives! During the siege of Sarajevo, my friend, a photographer who was born in Serbia, and I broke into the city by driving as fast as we could along the runway of the aerodrome. Of course, we got arrested, but we were freed and able to take photos. I’ve been arrested a few times. Once, in Afghanistan, a friend and I were taken out to be shot by a firing squad. They put us against the wall and told us to smoke our last cigarette. But to us, who had no concept of our own mortality and vulnerability, it was an adventure, and we joked with each other as we stood there. We were saved by a man who had completed the Hajj. His status allowed him to take us in as his guests, and he begged the Mujahideen to let us go, and they let us go, saying that we had to leave the village by the next morning.

You also did a Playboy shoot in Germany or you did work for Playboy Germany: Tell us about this shooting, what topic did you cover?

At the beginning of the nineties, I had an agent in Austria. He sold my photos of the famous serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, which I had taken during his trial in Rostov-on-Don. Chikatilo admitted to killing more than 50 women, and the Germans paid a lot of Deutsche Mark for my photos.

What did you parents think about your profession as a photographer back in the days? Did they approve or did they find it silly? Parents do not always understand the choices of their children.

I became a photographer by chance, and because of my mother. She gave me my first camera, “Smena-8M”, and sent me to a photography course at the local Dom Kultury. In those times, these courses were very popular. However, my mother still, after all these years and after I developed into an author, an artist and a teacher, doesn’t fully understand what I do and why.