My name is Tatya Lushchyk, I got into photography in 2008 after graduating from college. I began my journey by working in a photo studio, filming people for documents and printing photos on a large printing press. After that, I photographed people, weddings, families, children, and now I am the head of my small beauty studio, photographing advertisements and portraits, professional photo retouching and of course, creativity.

The foundation and love for photography was laid by my Minsk State Technological College, my first education where I aspired to be a photographer.

The first shots were during college - it was studio and street photo shoots, photographed on black and white film, self-developed and printed on photographic paper in a black room under red light. It was a very cool time when they did not yet know what Photoshop was. And the first picture of nature, which won first place in a local photo exhibition. Yes, I remember this picture - a river, a bridge and reflections of trees in the water and a church in the background.

I have several canon cameras, my favorite lens is canon 70-200 2.8f IS II.

For me now it is important to achieve my goals and my development. I want to contribute to this world, take amazing pictures and delight people with my creativity.

The words of my child after I told that my next photo was on the cover of a magazine: "Mom, you are so cool".

I am inspired by the analysis of my work done in the past in comparison with the present. All the time I develop both in photography and in retouching. And I really like to follow the evolution of my development.

Creativity, artistry, uniqueness

For me, this is a very significant event. This is an acknowledgment that I am moving in the right direction and that I need to make even more efforts to achieve my goals because everything I do is not in vain. And of course, this is an incredible inspiration for the implementation of new creative ideas.

I found out about the project quite by accident, I saw this EPA draft somewhere. It became interesting to me what it means - in such images, through the search engine, I got to the site of the award.

The decision to take part arose spontaneously, I registered and uploaded my own on the last days of submission of works. I didn't have high hopes to be the winner at all as I was well aware that there were so many great photographers from all over the world taking incredible shots.

My work depicts a portrait of a girl with a white snake. It was a creative photo session of people who are very afraid of these reptiles. The entire shooting took place in silence and breathlessness, but the idyll of the model and the snake delighted everyone. The result exceeded all expectations.

It's hard to say yet, but I gave a very big impetus not to give up and continue to participate in this kind of awards.

• Sergey Ivanov
• Tamara Williams
• David Arnal

These are the words of teachers at the defense of your photography diploma - you have an incredible sense of color that can be traced in every work - do not stop, develop it further.

Listen only to your inner voice, learn from the best and surpass them.

Surround yourself with wonderful creative people, thank them for helping you develop.

I see that the world is changing and developing very much, there is no need to resist this and never think that your knowledge is finite. You need to be able to learn new things and agree that there is no perfection of your development.

Thank you for allowing me to participate in this very wonderful international photo award.

Thank you very much.