I had a pretty cool career, I worked for the government in Russia. I started with social policy and surprisingly ended up in police force. I had a pretty structured schedule, I knew what would happen in 5 years and what will happen in 10 years. I was married and I had a dog. But some changes came, I broke up with my husband and then I was offered a new job which I didn’t want to take and I actually quit.At that time I didn’t know what to do, that was just before the winter Olympics in 2014 in Sochi and that’s what helped me.

I took a project and worked in the media centre at the Olympics, I met all these people from all over the world and I realized I can communicate with people from other countries and I actually loved it. And the same time, I started snowboarding (I was 26 or 27). I kind of got addicted, and when the snow started melting in April I decided to go to Bali to learn how to surf.I used to do photography as a hobby and so the idea that I would shoot in the water came to me in Russia, so I took a camera with me and I brought a plastic waterproof bag to take photos.

I worked for a special group responsible for preventative drug use – I was talking to young people and school students about why you shouldn’t do drugs.I was the "good cop" who gently explains what happens in the legal system if you do drugs. That was not only one thing I did, because I was a woman and I got a rank I also drug searched people.On my first time body searching a woman, in my head I thought it would be a beautiful girl in a nightclub in a glittery dress and I would gently ask her where are the drugs are. But in my first one it was a junky lady, she was very dirty and I thought I might get a disease from touching her but I did everything and honestly it wasn’t as scary as I thought.

That’s interesting question. When I started this work I had never tried alcohol, cigarettes or drugs and the only man I had ever been with was my ex-husband. I can’t say that I was planning on being that straight. I still have not tried alcohol to this day.

It is a bit hard. Firstly, mostly boys don’t believe in you. The guys, the surfers that meet you just see your Instagram and they don’t believe in you.I am facing this situation right now, I am shooting with a guy who works as a photographer in Mentawais, he wants to share his work load with another photographer and he chose me. We were talking about the job and then randomly he asked me ‘am I married?’.What do I need to think now? Should I say ‘fuck that shit!’ – should I loose the job to prove to him I’m not a cute girl, I’m an ambitious surf photographer?But it’s not always like that. Thank god!