Antonina Mamzenko is an award-winning photographer. Antonina effortlessly captures the essence of people through documentary style photography. Antonina defines success and satisfaction as not having to follow arbitrary rules such as working 9-5. She home educates her son and intentionally defines her own path in life.

Antonina will return for an in-depth conversation sharing how she just knew she needed to live in London. She was born in Russia, trained as a Lawyer but something compelled her to move to the UK. Since her move she accidently discovered a love for Photography and has become an award-winning photographer. She shares how invites failure and has reinvented herself many times over.

You can find Antonina at:

https://www.mamzenko.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mamzenko/
https://www.facebook.com/LondonFamilyPhotographer/

[Roksana] My guest today is an award winning documentary, family photographer, Antonina Mamzenko. Her work is unconventional in many ways; she doesn’t try to capture perfection. Instead, she tunes into what makes a client unique, real, and creates the spontaneous, natural, beautiful photographs that capture their true essence. At home she’s a mum to a beautiful boy, who she home educates, and the fascinating thing about Antonina is she is not afraid of failure. She’s learned to welcome failure and she’s pivoted in her career over and over again. Welcome, Antonina.

[Antonina] Hi, thanks for having me.

[Roksana] Welcome, thank you for coming today. Now Antonina, one of the questions I ask all of my guests is how you define success and satisfaction in both your work and your personal life.

[Antonina] I would say I keep redefining it, to be honest, as I get older. Almost like every year. And I think you kind of start with usual things; lots of money, big house, perfect body, beautiful clothes, lots of followers on Instagram, and then as you get hopefully older and wiser, and that’s what my progression has been, is that… success, for me, is just doing what I love really, and not being forced to do- follow arbitrary rules, like you know you have to come in at work at 9:00 AM and leave at five… and just having the flexibility to do what I want, when I want. Not working too hard, but also working hard when I want to, and having flexibility to travel and see my family when I want to. So for me it’s all about flexibility, really, and just going with the flow.

[Roksana] Sounds like you’ve created a sense of freedom in your work and personal life.

[Antonina] Yes, I think so. Well, I  hope so. That was one of the driving forces for me, like all the changes that I’ve done in the last- all the changes that have been made in the last 10 years or so, was all driven by freedom and craving of that freedom to do whatever and whenever I want. It’s not always good coz sometimes you do need some boundaries, I think, and structure, but I think for me is just having that lifestyle where you can spend- you can decide to have the day off and enjoy the weather, and go drive to the seaside and go swim in the sea, or go see your family and then dive into work for a week and really being a workaholic for a week and really get that project done. Yeah that’s the definition of success for me and that brings me satisfaction… that I can do that.

[Roksana] I’m similar to you in that I like to go into my zone of genius for a few days if I can, just stay in that space and do my thing for a few days. If I’m dabbling in and out, I really struggle with that.

[Antonina] Yeah, that’s a very good like- very good point. It’s the zone of genius, isn’t it? I like when it’s like really intense work for a few days, and then not doing any work for a few days, and that’s- I feel like that’s when I do my best work as well. Work can vary as well isn’t it, like one day I’m photographing- or for three days or photographing, then I’m doing some computer work, and then I’m not doing anything.

[Roksana] Amazing. Thank you so much, that’s a brilliant answer.

[Antonina] Thank you.