Filipp Kabanyayev
Filipp Kabanyayev was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a family of artists and scientists. As a result, from a very young age, he was exposed to various subjects ranging from photography and music to physics and astronomy. Filipp has always been fascinated with the processes that run our universe
Although never good at drawing, Filipp loved colouring. He went through hundreds of colouring books to make the images as vibrant as possible. His passion for photography started when he was around ten when he got his first camera. After that, he would go around taking pictures of everything and everyone. His favourite thing was to focus on a single subject and try to capture it from a unique angle.
At 17, Filipp moved to California, where he graduated from San Francisco State University and decided to focus on his career in banking and later insurance. Then, at 25, he reconnected with his childhood passion for photography and colouring. Filipp loved hiking, and he would take his camera with him. At first, he would take pictures of landscapes; then, he started focusing on flowers and leaves. Finally, he started experimenting with long-exposure photography. As he discovered light painting photography, he realized he could combine it with his childhood passion for colouring. So, he started experimenting with different techniques and different subjects.
Filipp particularly liked the texture of dry leaves. He would gather hundreds of them on his hikes, bring them home, and experiment. As a result, he gradually developed his own unique light painting technique, which is still evolving to this day.
Filipp Self-published two children’s books which he wrote and illustrated for his son Atlas:
1. A is for Astronaut: The ABC’s of space.
2. If I were a rocket.