Text and Captions : José Manuel Serrano Esparza
Photographs : Daria Troitskaia
© Daria Troitskaia
The photographer Daria Troitskaia, born in St Petersbourg (Russia), raised in Vienna (Austria), having spent some years in Malta and nowadays living in Milan (Italy), made a photographic reportage of the internationally acclaimed Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre of St Petersbourg during three years, between 2022 and 2025, getting pictures of rehearsals, live performances and backstage, mostly in the northern Russian city and also during a tour made by them in Serbia and Armenia.
© Leica Camera AG
Right off the bat, she took the decision to use an analogue professional photographic equipment, made up by a black chrome rangefinder Leica M7 camera,
© Leica Camera AG
a black Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH
and Ilford HP-5 ISO 400 black and white film rated at ISO 800.
Great picture made by the photographer shooting from a low angle and framing vertically to create a powerful, heroic and elevated appearance of the four dancers visible in the image, in perfect coordination while being with the whole weight of their bodies on the tip of their left feet, in symbiosis with their stretched legs and arms. The very slow shutter speed used has rendered their arms and right feet blurred, resulting in a vivid feeling of motion. From a composition viewpoint, the picture is greatly defined by the compelling strong and ascending left/right diagonal line highlighting the movement of the dancers and thecommendable synchronization of their legs.
© Daria Troitskaia.
It was a very wise choice for the kind of images she yearned to create, capturing ballet female and male dancers, both in movement on the stage
© Daria Troitskaia
and still behind the scenes, most times under very dim light conditions.The exceedingly low light levels made that vast majority of the pictures had to be taken at diaphragms between f/1.4 and f/5.6,
Rangefinder of the Leica M7. It is a masterpiece of optical and mechanical precision, consisting of more than 150 individual parts. Because of the very low light levels on stage, it was impossible to use zone focusing with the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH stopped down at f/8 or f/11 to get maximum feasible depth of field, so Daria Troitskaia had to fight tooth and nail focusing with the rangefinder, even when the ballet dancers were moving at full speed.
© Leica Camera AG.
focusing with the rangefinder and shooting handheld at very low shutter speeds, mostly at 1/15 s, 1/30 s and sometimes even at 1/8 s. In addition, the backstage from where she made the pictures was very dark. Therefore, it was an extremely hard and difficult context to get pictures.She had to change of position very quickly, making constant strenuous efforts to get the images, since the dancers were most of the time moving quickly,
© Daria Troitskaia
being bound to develop an adequate balance between control and react fast to make the pictures with the performers in full motion. She didn´t search for technical perfection in her photographs as main goal.
© Daria Troitskaia
Her most important aim was to fundamentally create images capturing defining instants and depicting the true atmosphere existing on the stage at the moment when each picture was taken, to accurately convey the gist of ballet and to highlight dancers as its most important figures. She emphasized the expressive power of the dancers´ bodies, begetting a visual story
Great picture made by the photographer masterfully capturing the peak of a jump or " apex " of five dancers, when they seem to briefly float in the air.
© Daria Troitskaia.
through movement and stillness rather than words.
© Daria Troitskaia
And in this regard, the Leica M7, a camera combining traditional and modern technology, is a top-notch photographic tool to freeze unique, fleeting and unrepeatable ballet instants where light, form and music entwine, with the also invaluable help of the extraordinary 8 elements in 5 groups and 11 blade diaphragm Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH, a very small and light lens for ts great luminosity, and delivering superb image quality, even at full f/1.4 aperture. Furthermore, this camera features 350 new or improved parts (150 mechanical and 250 electronic) in comparison with the previous Leica M6 and Leica M6 TTL.
TWO METHODS OF EXPOSURE METERING USED
Daría Troitskaia used two different ways of exposure metering: a) Realizing that the stage was dark and the dancers´ costumes mainly white,
she leveraged a Sekonic Speedmaster L-858 light meter, using its built-in spot metering with a viewfinder to obtain as much accurate exposures as possible in many of the pictures,
© Daria Troitskaia
a) thoroughly studying in advance the different areas of the stage, as well as getting accurate measurement of reflected light when circumstances allowed it, because shooting in such an extremely low light environment is always a challenge.
b) When the situation on stage changed too quickly and she had no time to meter again, she switched to automatic aperture priority exposure with her Leica M7.
© Leica Camera AG
This was also a very good metering way, since this camera has a metering spot in the center of the first shutter curtain, and whose mission is to reflect the light.
© Leica Camera AG
That metering spot has a diameter of 12 mm and corresponds to the 12,8 % of the 24 x 36 mm format, so the TTL exposure metering system of the camera is a semi-spot center weighted one, very useful to get measures from reflected light on stages. Therefore, when the camera is in automatic aperture priority mode, it continually measures the light, to such an extent that when the photographer has to move the camera aiming at different areas or subjects, the shutter speed indication in the viewfinder changes all the time.
Cutaway model of the Leica M7 showing its profusion of state-of-the-art highly miniaturized electronics (which needed the implementation of utterly new technologies in this field), in which a 16-bit microchip controls the TTL semi-spot metering for the shutter speed in aperture priority and other modes, the flash exposures, the shutter function, the data exchange with dedicated flash units, the displays in the VF and the adaptation of their brightness to ambient illumination.
© Leica Camera AG.
This way, Daria Troitskaia harnessed the most distinctive trait of the Leica M7: its aperture priority automatic exposure metering, which was a major and trailblazing advancement in the Leica M lineage of cameras, having been introduced in it by Rolf Magel (Manager of the Leica Electronics Development Department) and his team made up by Stefan Staudt, Robert Denk and Christian Fornfeist, enabling professional photographers to work faster and with great levels of reliability and exposure precision.
REASONS FOR THE SELECTION OF BLACK AND WHITE CHEMICAL FILM ILFORD HP-5 ISO 400 PUSHED TO ISO 800
Regarding the choice of black and white film instead of using colour with a digital camera, the reasons behind it stemmed from a number of factors: - The abstraction of chemical black and white film is more adequate to create a special kind of images depicting motion and reminding Alexei Brodovitch´s movement aesthetics (which Daria has always admired), in addition to preserving the feeling of mystery.
© Daria Troitskaia
- That same abstraction of b & w is the best way to turn ballet into a language of its own, expressed with photographs, using movement, silence and the spaces between to define a narrative.
The tension between stillness and motion is one of the most conspicuous and substantial elements visible in Daraia Troitskaia´s pictures of ballet, as can be seen in this image depicting a stark contrast between the motionlessness of the two nearest to camera female dancers lying on the stage floor and the fast movement of the male dancer standing just beyond them and advancing towards the right of the photograph with his right leg and foot forward and both of his arms fully stretched. The very precise timing on shooting the shutter release button of her Leica M7, capturing the exact split second in which the dancer´s right hand seems to touch one of the lights in the background, enhances the image impact very much.
© Daria Troitskaia.
- It is likewise an idoneous means to focus with the Leica M7 and its Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH on ephemeral performance moments, translating the visual poetry of dance and the pulse of music into photographic frames.
© Daria Troitskaia
- The increased visible grain as a consequence of the push from 400 iso to 800 is not disturbing at all, but aesthetically pleasant, enhancing textures and the mood of each instant, as well as fostering the presence and emotional connection with the performance,
Daria Trotskaia´s ballet photography has always been an abiding struggle to find the perfect shot blending her creative philosophy´s ideal balance of light, perspective and dynamism, within the frame of the philosophy behind each of her pictures, a photographic raison d´être strongly linked to Susan Sontag´s book " On Photography " , a key reading for her from scratch.
© Daria Troitskaia.
to such an extent that the ability of the photographer to choose the most representative moments, her deep knowledge of ballet and her ability and experience to press the shutter release button of her camera exactly at the most meaningful split second, turn ordinary moments into special and timeless ones.
A signicant percentage of Daria Troitskaia´s photographs of ballet delve into discipline, vulnerability and the moment just before transformation on stage, as can be seen in this image taken at full f/1.4 aperture, with the focus on the female dancer in the background behind the stage, who is like praying before her performance, and a second one on the right of the picture, out of focus and also waiting for her turn.
© Daria Troitskaia.
- The image aesthetics and abstraction of black and white film is also ideal to reveal the introspection of ballet dancers
As a visual story teller, Daria Troitskaia has always thought that a major thing to convey her ideas is to attract the viewer´s attention, as happens in this dramatic image in which she captures a male dancer of the Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre of St Petersbourg waiting for his performance turn, photographing him with her Leica M7 and Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH from near the minimum focusing distance of 70 cm, engrossed in his thoughts, with his head a bit blurred, transmitting feeling of movement, utterly in shadow and the lit stage in the background, boosted by the big round light in the extreme high key. The picture has got exactly the mood the photographer wanted to convey.
© Daria Troitskaia
during the time they spend backstage with maximum concentration before their performances, trying to overcome nervousness and do their best.
- The selection of black and white film was a a deliberate artistic choice to slow down the photographic phases, strengthening the traces of presence, along with the narrative and spectacle.
- Black and white, with its imperfect grain, freezes time and transforms every shot into a dream.
- She also chose black and white film because colour would have distracted the audience from the concepts she wanted to convey, since the absence of colour sharpens the viewer´s perception, so smoke, shadow and gradation are more distinctive.
- Black and white images leave more space for the observer´s imagination. - Film cameras make you work in a more concentrated way.
THE ELECTRONIC SHUTTER OF THE LEICA M7 PUT TO ITS PACES BY DARIA TROITSKAIA
During the three years in which the Russian photographer made her picture essay on the Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre in St Petersbourg,
Top right area of the Leica M7, showing from left to right the shutter speeds dial with speeds between 4 s and 1/1000 s + B, the release button of the electronic shutter, the on/off switch under it (avoiding to trigger the shutter when the camera is put into or pulled out of the camera bag) and the frame counter. The smoothness of operation and discretion of this camera during the photographic act is the benchmark among the analogue Leica M models ever made.
© Leica Camera AG.
she used extensively the electronic horizontally travelling focal-plane shutter with rubberized cloth curtains of her 24 x 36 mm format Leica M7 rangefinder camera, getting thousands of pictures, with a high degree of emotional involvement.
Upper view of the Leica M7 electronic shutter without its top plate, showing the high quality plastic covers protecting the two magnets connected to wires and governing its operation. Therefore, the gears, cams and levers controlling the mechanical shutter of the Leica M6 and Leica M6 TTL have been replaced by two electromagnets, one for each curtain, whose release timing is regulated by them. In addition, the gear train of the previous mechanical shutter has been eliminated, so there isn´t the typical soft noise of the gears delaying the second curtain during the slow speeds. This was also of invaluable help for Daria Troitskaia to get the pictures shooting hand and wrist at very slow shutter speeds in an utterly silent and unobtrusive way, with the added advantage that the automatic aperture priority mode of the Leica M7 enabled her to give all attention to framing and focusing, on being this camera optimized to work flawlessly in situations with constantly changing light levels and scenes with strong lighting contrasts.
© Leica Camera AG.
This electronic shutter is very similar to the traditional, highly reliable and sturdy mechanical focal-plane horizontally travelling with rubberized cloth curtains shutter of the Leica M6 and Leica M6 TTL, but electronically controlled, so specially its highest and slowest shutter speeds are more accurate than with other Leica M models with mechanical shutters. Leica gave top priority to four pivotal aspects on choosing to create this electronic shutter for the Leica M7:
a) To get an amazingly low level of shutter noise when shooting. And in this scope, the classical mechanical shutter of the previous Leica M cameras was unbeatable, so the German photographic firm opted for greatly preserving the cloth focal-plane shutter mechanism of the Leica M6 and M6 TTL, but adding an electronic speed control device. This provided the Leica M7 with a virtually imperceptible shutter sound (even more silent than in the two aforementioned cameras),
© Daria Troitskaia
which proved to be instrumental for the kind of pictures made by Daria Troistakaia during a number of ballet rehearsals and performances of many dancers, both on the stage
© Daria Troitskaia
and behind the scenes of the Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre in St Petersbourg, a context in which discretion during the photographic act was a decisive factor.
b) To obtain maximum reliability of operation in difficult working conditions. Also in this aspect, the mechanical shutter of the previous Leica M cameras was the reference-class one. That´s why Leica didn´t follow the way of choosing the metal blade vertically running Seiko MFC-ES electronic shutter featured by the Leica R4 (1980-1987) and R5 (1986-1992) slr cameras or the new electronic shutter of the also slr Leica R7 (1992-1997) with a lot of blades, both of them real wonders from a technological viewpoint and level of miniaturization, but a bit more noisy on shooting the camera. In addition, Otto Domes and his team proved once again to raise to the challenge, attaining one more extraordinary technical achievement : the electronic shutter of the Leica M7 generates still less vibration than the mechanical shutter of the Leica M6 and M6TTL, and is even more silent, which confirmed that Daria Troitskaia used the probably best analogue photographic camera in existence to do this reportage in an unobtrusive way and using the fabulous Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH, designed by Peter Karbe,
© Daria Troitskaia
which was able to get excellent image quality and good level of detail in lights and shadows, even under the extreme conditions in which this picture essay was made, with the photographer using very slow shutter speeds that often rendered the figures blurred, to highlight the dancers´ movements.
c) To get maximum accuracy of exposure metering in difficult working conditions,
© Daria Troitskaia
particularly on shooting handheld in aperture priority automatic mode using very slow shutter speeds, something eased by the exposure locking that takes place on pressing the shutter halfway. This integration of electronic exposure automation into the very small classical Leica M body shape expands very much the camera capabilities and operation speed, particularly in photographic contexts with quickly changing light levels, when the photographer hasn´t time to manually get the exposure for each shot, because it would be highly time-consuming and a lot of decisive moments woudn´t be captured.
d) It was likewise of paramount importance to obtain an extremely short shutter lag (time elapsed between the pressing of the shutter release button of the camera and the exposure), something of invaluable help for photographers when it comes to accurately capturing defining instants happening in a split second, a field in which the Leica M photographic tools have always reigned supreme over the slr models, whose shutter lags are usually 100 ms or more. And also in this respect, the Leica M6 and M6 TTL had the upper hand among Leica M cameras, with an amazing shutter lag of 16 milliseconds. But Otto Domes (Director of the Leica M7 Project) and his team managed to accomplish a tremendous technical feat, reducing the shutter lag of the Leica M7 up to 12 ms, turning it into the benchmark in this regard.
© Daria Troitskaia
Daria Troitskaia, whose painstaking attention to even the smallest details and a very good timing accuracy on pressing the shutter release button of her camera to capture meaningful instants have always been among her virtues as a photographer, leveraged this 12 ms shutter lag of her Leica M7 to the utmost,
Great picture made by Daria Troitskaia capturing a male dancer of the St Petersbourg Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre during his performance on stage, conveying outstanding feeling of movement by choosing a very slow shutter speed, which has rendered blurred all of his body, with the exception of his lower right leg and foot. The timing is perfect, with the dancer´s arms completely stretched backwards, in laudable coordination with his legs (the left one also appearing blurred, along with its foot) to keep balance while moving at great speed. Daria Troitskaia´s starting stage as a street photographer in Malta at the beginning of her career was for her a previous stepping stone to get an amazing accuracy on pressing the shutter release button of her cameras and capture decisive moments like this.
© Daria Troitskaia.
which resulted in a stunning symbiosis with her fast picture taking style during the making of this long-term project, because though boasting an electronic shutter, this camera is 100% pure Leica M and fits seamless into the classical way of making pictures, well deserved reputation for longevity, engineering excellence and reliability having been integral to the success of this breed of rangefinder models since 1954, when the Leica M3 was launched into market at the Photokina Köln of that year.
THE SUMMILUX-M 50 MM F/1.4 ASPH STANDS THE TEST
At every moment, the black Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH used by Daria Troitskaia coupled to her Leica M7 proved its mettle, immersed in an extremely difficult context to get pictures, shooting handheld ballet dancers on stage and behind the scenes,
© Daria Troitskaia
Picture in which the photographer makes a wise use of chiaroscuro, adding drama and atmosphere with low-key lighting enhancing the loneliness of two dancers waiting backstage for their turn and the emotional component of the moment.
© Daria Troitskaia.
in the midst of frequent very low luminic levels,
© Daria Troitskaia
changing lights,
© Daria Troitskaia
performers most times in motion,
Another image showing Daria Troitskaia´s deft use of chairoscuro technique in some of her pictures, with interplay of light and shadow to create a dramatic three-dimensional effect, providing a sense of depth and emotion, emphasizing the power of contrast, skillfully using light to carve out forms and build a sense of realism, as well as molding the subject, casting it into a kind of relief and imbuing the photograph with a palpable sense of presence.
© Daria Troitskaia.
the arduousness of focusing accurately using the camera´s rangefinder, and many more things.In addition, there was a further factor making even more complex to bring the reportage to fruition : A black and white film like the Ilford HP-5 ISO 400 pushed to ISO 800 is a very good choice to get pictures on a ballet stage shooting handheld with available light,
© Daria Troitskaia
but because of its visible grain, amplified on rating the chemical emulsion at double its sensitivity, it is far from being the ideal film to get the best feasible image quality with the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH, which would yield far better resolving power, contrast and sharpness with b & w films like Ilford Pan F Plus 50, Fuji Acros 100, Ilford FP4 Plus 125 and others featuring less sensitivity and barely grain.
© Daria Troitskaia
Moreover, the pushing from ISO 400 to ISO 800 boosts contrast and tightens shadows.Anyway, Daria Troitskaia´s talent, experience and speed of movements made a fairly efficient synergy with the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH and the Ilford HP-5 ISO 400 b & w film rated at ISO 800,
© Daria Troitskaia
bringing about a more expressive, grittier and punchier look in the images than if they had been taken with the film shot at its nominal speed, with the added benefit of an aesthetically very pleasant and nice visible grain, working like a charm, capturing the special atmosphere and mood of each instant, with an appeal lying in its emotional tone and frequent sense of introspection and mystery, while simultaneously preserving good level of detail in lights and shadows. And the 8 elements in 5 groups Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH designed by Peter Karbe endured the test with high marks.It stemmed not only from its stellar levels of resolving power, contrast and sharpness (inevitably far from its full potential in a reportage like this, with a significant percentage of images being taken shooting handheld at very low shutter speeds, resulting in certain degrees of blurring in the pictures, to heighten the feeling of motion, along with the atmosphere and mood of each defining instant, which were the most important goals),
© Daria Troitskaia
but particularly from the viewpoint of its lovely creamy and smooth bokeh ( fruit of the very rounded 11 blade diaphragm and the dual optical DNA of this lens, with traits of the classical non aspherical Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 Double Gauss scheme
— 1959-2004, designed by Walter Mandler
— in its front group of elements and the much modern features of the Summilux-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH — 1991-1994
— boasting two aspherically ground surfaces, designed by Walter Watz, in its rear group of elements),
© Daria Troitskaia
with soft transition from sharp to blur, very useful to aesthetically convey the gist of ballet, and present in many of the images created by Daria Troitskaia. Lens-wise, the practical and aesthetic choice of a 50 mm prime by the photographer to make this ballet picture essay was awash with insight, since this focal length plays very well into the visual language being used, trying to depict the pith of this artistic art form, using dance, music and scenery to tell stories. In addition, this standard focal length matches impeccably Daria Troitskaia´s photographic sight and sensibility, providing more control over shallow depth of field than a wideangle 35 mm lens, getting more natural and balanced perspectives and images, as well as avoiding any extreme of distortion or compression.
THE EXCEPTIONAL VIEWFINDER OF THE LEICA M7 MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN SYMBIOSIS WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER´S ACCURACY TO CAPTURE DEFINING INSTANTS EPITOMIZING THE ESSENCE OF BALLET
Facing such complex lighting environments like the stage of a ballet theatre and the nearby behind the scenes zones, with frequent periods of very low luminic levels, requires a camera featuring the best possible viewfinder, enabling the photographer to see things with maximum sharpness, to precisely focus and make fast compositions.
© Leica Camera AG
In this regard, the Leica M7 (2002-2018) viewfinder of its last batches units (like the 0.72x one owned by Daria Troitskaia) is the yardstick among Leica M cameras, along with the one sported by the Leica MP (2003 -nowadays),
The Leica M7 was one of the pioneering analogue cameras using digital readouts in the viewfinder, and when set in automatic aperture priority exposure mode, its viewfinder shows a red display indicating shutter speed, film speed, exposure mode and flash readiness. In addition, the VF information brightness is also automatically adjusted to match the ambient light conditions, which was exceedingly helpful during the making of this reportage.
© Leica Camera AG.
so the photographer can frame quickly and get very precise focus with the integrated VF/RF, even at the widest apertures. And this is truly commendable, because the Leica M6 and Leica M6 TTL viewfinders were already superb.
0.72x viewfinder of Daria Troitskaia´s black chrome Leica M7. Featuring an effective measuring base of 49.9 mm, it has a very good symbiosis with the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH, though not reaching the level of the Leica M7 with 0.85x viewfinder, whose effective measuring base is 58.9 mm, only second to the 0.91x viewfinder of the Leica M3, which is the reference-class one with an EBL of 63 mm.
© Leica Camera AG.
That Leica M7 VF was given a new antireflection coating, significantly reducing the flare of the rangefinder patch that sometimes happens in situations when strong light sources are shining obliquely into the finder. And its extraordinary sharpness, contrast and crystal-clear brilliance was repeatedly put to the test by Daria Troitskaia in a number of challenging dim lighting conditions on making her ballet pictures,
© Daria Troitskaia
coming in very handy to clearly distinguish the ballet dancers´ contours, even when wrapped in
smoke on the stage during some specific scenes,
© Daria Troitskaia
focusing them with praiseworthy accuracy, bearing in mind the circumstances. Additionally, the photographer took advantage of the illuminated frameline appearing inside the Leica M7 viewfinder for a 50 mm lens, a bit smaller than in a Leica M2 or Leica M3, but providing more space than in both of them around the active bright-light frames. This was also very helpful for Daria Troistakaia to get these pictures of ballet, because the space around the frameline of her 50 mm lens enabled her to both focusing and composing just before making each photograph and at the same time to be able to see what was happening around, anticipating to things or people entering the frame.
Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH with its built-in shade extended, which was very useful to minimize all kind of flare and ghosting coming from the stage of St Petersbourg Leonid Jakobson Ballet Theatre, where there were often mixed lights and some contre-jour scenes.
© Leica Camera AG.
Also lens-wise, the practical and aesthetic choice of a 50 mm prime by the photographer to make this ballet picture essay was awash with insight, since this focal length plays very well into the visual language being used, trying to depict the pith of this artistic art form, using dance, music and scenery to convey stories. In addition, this standard focal length matches impeccably Daria Troitskaia´s photographic sight and sensibility, providing more control over shallow depth of field than a wideangle 35 mm lens, getting more natural and balanced perspectives and images, as well as avoiding any extreme of distortion or compression. It isn´t less true that a 50 mm standard lens will limit framing choices more than a wideangle lens, but that limitation often gives rise to better results and art when you manage to get good pictures.
© Leica Camera AG
On the other hand, because of the 2.5 mm height increase between its lens mount and its viewfinder (necessary to accommodate the additional electronics) in comparison with the Leica M6, the view/rangefinder windows of the Leica M7 sit up higher from the lens, so finder blockage by hoods is reduced.
THE HUGE MOTIVATION AND UNFLINCHING LOVE FOR BALLET AS KEY INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESS
This reportage on the dancers of the Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre in St Petersbourg (Russia) was very difficult and hard to implement for Daria Troitskaia during its three years duration, with exhausting journeys getting the pictures in far from ideal conditions to shoot handheld with available light, within a not controlled environment in which the photographer had to adapt to constantly changing situations on stage,
© Daria Troitskaia
© Daria Troitskaia
very dim light with different luminic qualities and trajectories,
© Daria Troitskaia
plenty of different attires used by the ballet dancers,
© Daria Troitskaia
A further aim of Daria Troitskaia´s ballet pictures is to show her inner world, always in movement, and a unique perspective that breathes life into her photography, full of subtleties and nuances, in addition to being driven by aesthetic aspirations and a sense of adventure.
© Daria Troitskaia.
and frequent very low key backgrounds.
© Daria Troitskaia
Moreover, strenuous efforts had to be made at every moment to accurately focus with the camera rangefinder on the most times moving dancers (photographing them even in the air while jumping), having to move fast from one side to the other behind various areas of the backstage
© Daria Troitskaia
© Daria Troitskaia
to capture the ballet dancers from a number of angles,
A highly representative image of ballet using a very slow shutter speed, capturing the energy on the stage and conveying a feeling of motion in the dancers´ movement, translating the quintessential dynamism of ballet to a still photograph, unlocking its timeless beauty.
© Daria Troitskaia.
sometimes making group shots
© Daria Troitskaia
and also framing individual dancers in full motion
© Daria Troitskaia
or doing a representative figure. This ballet picture essay turned often into an attrition battle, in which the photographer went to great lengths to carry it on to completion, putting all of her soul, heart and body at every moment. Very frequently, the photographer had to move very quickly to be able to get the pictures of dancers in different zones of the stage. Particularly the first weeks of 2022, when she started this reportage, were a real ordeal for Daria Troitskaia, who was dabbling in ballet photography and beginning to know every place of the stage, the different lights projected on it, the positions from which she could get pictures and so forth. But she pushed forward, little by little, until getting accurate exposures, using predominantly the Sekonic Speedmaster L-858 light meter in spot mode and other times making use of the automatic semi-spot exposure mode of her Leica M7 rangefinder camera. Needless to say that her unwavering perseverance paid off, and after photographing a raft of rehearsals and live performances, as well as thoroughly studying the style and movements of each dancer, she got the knack of it, improving her pictures by leaps and bounds, striving upon depicting the gist of ballet and the artistic fascination she feels for it, while doing her best to create an emotional connection with the observers of her images.
ALSO EXPLORING THE QUIET WORLD BEHIND THE STAGE
As well as capturing the movement, intensity and adrenaline inherent to live performances and mixed programs on stage inside the Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre in St Petersbourg and during its tours abroad, in Serbia and Armenia,
© Daria Troitskaia
Daria Troitskaia photographed a lot of rehearsals
© Daria Troitskaia
and instants of stillness behind the scenes,
© Daria Troitskaia
when discipline dissolves into vulnerability.
© Daria Troitskaia
These images lacking motion focus on the private dialogue between body and silence,
© Daria Troitskaia
and are part and parcel of the immersive photojournalism she has always practised.
© Daria Troitskaia
Therefore, the backstage photographs made by Daria Troitskaia, though perhaps not being as spectacular as her pictures of the dancers on stage,
© Daria Troitskaia
© Daria Troitskaia
show meaningful gestures and instants, being likewise pivotal to understand
© Daria Troitskaia
her remarkable ballet reportage as a whole
© Daria Troitskaia
and the mood and behaviour of performers out of the scenes.
© Daria Troitskaia
Moreover, the illumination at the edge of the stage
© Daria Troitskaia
is very different from the backstage area, which is usually quite dark,
© Daria Troitskaia
while the dressing rooms are bright. And if it were not enough, the backstage group of people is fairly comprehensive, a world in itself, made up by producers, director, répétiteurs, administrators, technical crew, etc. Needless to say that Daria Troitskaia built a remarkable rapport with the dancers she photographed, which was helpful to make them feel comfortable during the performances and rehearsals.
A WIDE ASSORTMENT OF BALLET PERFORMANCES AND REHEARSALS PHOTOGRAPHED
© Daria Troitskaia
During the carrying out of this photographic project between 2022 and 2025, Daria Troitskaia made pictures of 9 different ballets :
- Swan Lake.
- Don Quixote.
- The Sleeping Beauty.
- The Queen of Spades.
- Rodin.
- A Brook.
- 598 Bars.
- Mischievous Ditties.
And throughout that time, she spoke extensively with both dancers and the rest of the team outside the stage, to steadily improve her knowledge on this fascinating artistic discipline requiring outstanding physical athleticism, expressive talent and mental strength,
© Daria Troitskaia
so each frame captured with her camera became a trace of breath, light and gesture, reflecting the photographer´s long relationship with ballet,
Her love for art has always been Daria Troitskaia´s driving force behind everything, including her huge passion for photography. And regarding ballet, she has always deemed it extremely interesting.
© Daria Troitskaia.
highlighting movements,
© Daria Troitskaia
© Daria Troitskaia
meaningful stillnesses,
© Daria Troitskaia
© Daria Troitskaia
latent silences and a myriad of emotions.
Ballet photography is a compelling blend of visual story telling, technical expertise and the ability of capturing the delicate beauty of human movement, aspects handled with stunning skill by Daria Troitskaia, who has managed to also hold sway over the choice of shutter speeds, something central to dance photography, since motion is one of its key ingredients to get memorable and dynamic shots. And practising more and more and having a very deep love and passion for ballet is the only way to acquire the elusive ability to freeze motion into one frame, depicting ballet movements like thePlié (bending), Tendu (stretch), Relevé (rise), Arabesque (balance on one leg with the other extended behind), Jeté (leap), Pirouette (spin), all built on the tenets of Turnout (rotating legs from the hips) and fluid and controlled performance, all of it in synergy with steps like Assemblé, Chassé and Développé, that´s to say, complex routines emphasizing grace, strength and balance through bending, stretching, jumping and turning.
© Daria Troitskaia
Because dance photography is all about capturing the art of movement and all that comes with it, so the photographer needed to increasingly improve her timing, her low light adaptability and her accuracy to capture moving dancers on stage, without disrupting the performance, and also out of the scenes, preserving the genuine mood and atmosphere of each quietness instant. In addition, by dint of tenacity and a discerning eye, she has excelled creating a narrative within the scene, developing her personal artistic vision and style of doing ballet photography, blurring a significant percentage of the dancers with a clever use of slow shutter speeds, attaining impressive movement feeling and producing dreamy and abstract atmospheres as they move about the frame. To sum up, while doing this enthralling reportage on the St Petersbourg Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre, Daria Troistakaia strove upon photographing the dancers flawlessly hitting the mark after finding as many angles and perspectives as possible to shoot her camera and make their bodies look the best, incorporating their faces, feet and hands as core of their expressiveness and art, getting a plethora of captivating instants to raise the ballet photography to new heights, unravelling the nuances of its grace and beauty, which lends itself perfectly to the art of photography, with composition, timing and lighting as main vehicles to convey its distinctive atmosphere, dynamism and elegance.
Daria Troitskaia is a highly versatile Leica photographer using Leica M7, Leica M11, Leica SL2 and Leica S3, having made pictures of street photography, ballet, sporting cars, classic cars, aerial photography from helicopters and drones, fashion, still lifes, Antarctica, Formula 1, etc, whose pictures have been exhibited hitherto in France, United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, Russia, United States and Malta, standing out among others :
- " Way Up High " exhibition, held at the Leica Store and Gallery in Nuremberg (Germany), between October 29, 2022 and January 28, 2023, including spectacular aerial photographs made by Daria Troitskaia from helicopters and with drones, and some other top-notch images.
- Spectrum Miami- Art Basel Miami (United States) in December of 2022.
- " Sleeping with Art : The Art of Cars " exhibition, held at Hedsor House (United Kingdom) in October of 2022.
- Solo Show " Way Up High ", celebrated at Leica Galerie Taipei (Taiwan) between March and June of 2023.
- Exhibition " Celebration of Photography in Singapore ", held at the ION Orchard Art Gallery of Singapore between November 18 and 26 of 2023, and organized by Leica Singapore, with the title " Her Lens, Her Narrative " , showing the work of five women photographers : Daria Troitskaia, Nicole Tung, Rebecca Toh, Teresa Qin and Michele Fong.
- ImagiNation Milan 2023.
- Solo Show " Vertigo " , held at The Core Club in Montenapoleone VIP Lounge, Milan (Italy), between May and July of 2024.
- ImagiNation Milan 2024.
- The Analog Sparks Film Photography Awards 2024 Best of Show Exhibition in March of 2025 in Ostuni (Italy), where she earned the Photographer of the Year Prize.
- Solo Show " Transition " , held at DESKO, in Valletta (Malta), in february of 2020.
And her images have been published in prestigious magazines like :
- Leica Fotografie International October 2019 : Picture of the Week, Leica Master Shots.
- Perimetro Magazine number of August 2021, including the portfolio " Mediterranean Aerials ", with eighteen colour photographs of Mediterranean landscapes captured by Daria Troitskaia from a helicopter, combining the beauty of natural scenery and alterations made by man.
- Dodho Magazine number of April 28, 2022, featuring the reportage " Antarctica " by Daria Troitskaia, with 19 colour pictures made by her in one of the most remote destinations of the planet and showing an amazing man-made infrastructure consisting of camps of varying comfort, touristic destinations and research institutions.
- Leica Fotografie International January 2023, featuring her work " Chamber of Wonders ", dedicated to still lifes, with harmonious compositions of selected antiques, in a new guise of light and colour, combining a modern art form like photography with vintage items and giving them another chance to remain in history.
- Leica S Magazine, featuring her porfolio " The Elements ", with black and white images of the model Beatrice, taken with a Leica S3 and Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH in Sliema (Malta), making up a series of pictures dedicated to Air and Earth, with the Mediterranean Sea in the background in most of them, focusing on the wind bringing life and movement. It also includes an interview with the photographer.
- Iconic Artist Magazine number 005 Spring Summer 2023. Contributing photographer with some pictures.
- B & W Magazine, number 162, October of 2023 : Spotlight Daria Troitskaia.
- Xtra Magazine Italy Number 26 of 2024, featuring the porfolio " Vertigo ", with aerial pictures of Italian coast and sailing ships made by Daria Troitskaia from helicopters and using a Leica S3 with different lenses.
- The Straits Times Singapore newspaper of November 17, 2023, reporting about " Women in Photography " exhibition at the ION Art Gallery, including pictures of Daria Troitskaia and other female photographers.
- Barche Magazine of December 2024, featuring the portfolio " Shots from the Sky ", with six aerial photographs of the Italian coast and sailing boats made by Daria Troitskaia from helicopters.
- GQ Taiwan Magazine, number of March 2023, featuring eight pictures made by Daria
Troitskaia (four of fashion in black and white and other four aerial ones in colour, taken from a helicopter, of the Italian coast and some sailing ships).
- C41 Magazine number of October 27, 2025, including nine b & w photographs of " Before Desire : Daria Troitskaia photographs the silence of Crazy Horse " , another milestone picture essay made by her between 2024 and 2025, using her analogue Leica M7 and black and white Ilford HP-5 ISO 400 black and white film, masterfully depicting the heart of Crazy Horse Parisian cabaret and making a praiseworthy use of light to enhance the female body of the dancers, caressing and sculpting every curve.
- Leica Hunter Magazine number of March 4, 2024, with Daria Troitskaia´s pictures of her reportage " World to Roam " , one of her favourite model Lisa inside a helicopter, another of a model with a fire in the background, a third one of a burning car, a further one of a model in front of a sporting car, two aerial pictures made from a helicopter, another b & w one with two models doing fencing, four more of models with cars and the last one of a landscape also taken from a helicopter.
And she has published the following books :
- " Maltese Exposures " , launched into market in 2020, a reflection of the fascination she feels with the Maltese scenery (its sun, the ideal lighting and bright colours) and people. She lived in the Mediterranean island for some years and made excellent street photographies which are included in this book.
- " Daria Troitskaia -Way Up High ", a photobook comprising the 53 images featured during the exhibition bearing the same name and held at the Leica Gallery Nuremberg. It includes a comprehensive essay and an interview with the photographer.
- " Italy From The Air " , a photobook that will appear soon and in which Daria Troitskaia has been working for some years, getting the pictures from Bell 505 and Eurocopter helicopters with their doors opened in mid flight and using a medium format Leica S3 with Leica Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH, Summarit-S 70 mm f/2.5 ASPH and others. It promises to show the beauty of Italy from unparelled perspectives and images oozing superb colour gradation, looking astonishing on paper.
She has also won a number of major international photographic awards :
- Winner of the International Photography Awards 2022 with a picture of the Matterhorn mountain made in Switzerland on January 7, 2022 from a helicopter with a Leica S3 and Apo-Macro-Summarit-S 120 mm f/2.5.
- Merit Awards Gallery of Photo.Com Photo Awards 2022 with a black and white picture of the model Beatrice belonging to her reportage " The Elements " made in Sliema (Malta).
- Honorable Professional Mention in Photojournalism in the 2023 Monochrome Awards, International Black & White Photography Contest.
- Golden Prize Photographer of the Year winner at the Analog Sparks 2025 International Analog Photography Awards for her picture essay " Crazy Horse Paris Cabaret ".
- Award in Professional Still Life Category in the Refocus World Photo Annuals Awards 2025.
a) Vast majority of times, the photographer had to move very quickly to be able to get the pictures of dancers in different zones of the stage, which brough about some periods of abundant physical attrition.
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