Biographical Notes about Belarussion-American Photographer Yelena Yahontova from American perspective

When you hire Yelena Yahontova you won't just be hiring another photographer. You will be hiring a poet. Other photographers may give you a technically perfect photo...but there may be something missing. You will be able to sense it, but it won't be something you can easily describe with words.

Yelena Yahontova is from Belarus, a part of the former Soviet Union. She comes from a great and long tradition of Eastern European poets which makes her a rare talent among photographers. It was by chance she found herself in America and was able to pursue her lifelong dream of being a photographer.

Yelena was educated in Linguistics and Literature at the Belarussian State University where she holds a Masters degree in the Science of Humanities. In her student years she was widely published as a poet in her native country Belarus. She has also translated some of Poland's greatest poets into her native Belarusian language.

In addition to being a poet and poetic translator, Yelena has been a journalist, a model, a school teacher and a university lecturer, an interpreter and a scientist. This wide range of experience has given her the tools of creative expression that she uses as a photographer. Her experience as a photo model is especially helpful for her portrait photographer career, because she knows how it feels to be on both sides of the camera.

Yelena s love of photo portraits began when she was 17. Often, she would print her black and white photographs in her bathroom in the middle of night. Since then photography was her hobby. In 2002, she became a full-time professional photographer.

Yelena doesn't work like most portrait photographers. Each photo is a unique expression of the individual she is photographing. She usually works on location to create the images. Most of the time she does a makeup and clothing style for her models.

I don t know how she come up with her ideas, but one thing is certain what she creates is magic. If you want unique and expressive portraits of yourself or you child Yelena Yahontova is the photographer for you.

Jeremy Hogan, photographer