After my own initiative, when I decided to turn to a local Estonian cycling magazine and offer to write them a story to promote my little blog here.

They were interested and so I got to write some of my thoughts down and choose my favourite cyclists, whose photos would be featured in their July 2018 issue.

I am not going to translate the entire LONG story, as unfortunately it is in Estonian, but I leave you with the lovely photos of the cyclist who I have found the most interesting in the five years of running this blog.

Thank you for contributing and please return for new photos of exciting cyclists!

Thank you Vahur Kalmre for giving me this chance!

“Recycle.Chinatown“ appeared from almost thousand of frames, which have been captured in Chinatown.

I hope to inspire viewers to recycle materials and things and offer and option that perhaps there are ways to mend the broken things or put them to use in a completely new context. In a way this exhibition is also an invitation to visit Chinatown and obtain inspiration from it.

This exhibition is possible because of Cultural Endowment of Tartu, St. John’s Church, Tartu, Janar Ilves, Angelika Pedosk, immense help and guidance of Arp Karm, PLC Täitsa Kantav and Lilian Lukka donating tens and tens of frames and other donors Kadri Vaher, Kristina Kurm, Nele Ambos and Tartu Uuskasutuskeskus.

Check the opening gallery HERE.

Published article in Õhtuleht.ee.

Published article in Fotoait.ee

Published TV interview in Kanal2.ee

I have opened my brand new Etsy shop, where I am selling my Chinatown series greeting cards. I have some other, not so traditional and photogenic photos since 2001 on sale as well, so please if any interest, contact me and I send you the photos of them. Mostly they are winter still-lives.

Handmade double sided black and white photo greeting cards for any occasion of your choice! You can choose between the beige or silver paper.

Photo is originally taken on film, scanned and printed for a photograph on a matte paper and glued on top of the horizontal card, so that there is a little silver border around the photo. On the back of the card is a little logo of www.kerlyilves.com

Size 11×16 cm, which is suitable for an average European size envelope. Comes without one.

Presented photos are part of my ongoing photography project, since 2014, which is capturing the setting of an urban garden located in Tartu, Estonia and called Chinatown. It has grown freely for many decades and nobody owns the land or the lots, but recently town municipality has shown some interest in it and wants to build an extension of a wide road through it, which may be the end of the vast urban garden area. Through your kind purchase the scenery captured will live on forever.

P.s. You can contact me directly for any of these cards.

New year, new challenges, new directions, new skills – that is how I would like my new year to be.

They say the beginning of the year is slow, but I found myself in the first days of the year, once again taking photos of a lovely tiny lady Elli, who is a wonderful subject and since her parents liked the photos, I am glad to know that I can do okay with children photography as well. Can’t wait for the next time!

Here are some photos of Elli.

You can check my newer photos mostly black and white, on my Instagram account. I can be reached also there under kerlyilvesphotography. I am trying to learn as much as possible and also evolve, therefore I think of Instagram as a cool tool and I am constantly trying to challenge myself with different themes. Check out my feed here: kerlyilvesphotography.

Few weeks ago I visited Estonian National Archive with my photography class students from Tamme Gymnasium in Tartu. We were taken on a really informative and thorough tour through many floors of the newly opened building called Noora by Birgit Kibal, who is putting lots of her energy into making archive fun and active place to! I was very inspired by her!

We were able to take photos of whatever we wanted, and while we did so, she provided us with very valuable information about what we were taking photos of. She did a lovely post with the help of her colleague, who helped to choose the photos from all the photos we took there, which you can see HERE. Unfortunately it is in Estonian.

Translation of the photo below goes something like this:

Paper poetry

Written memory of Estonia through the photographic lens of Tamme Gymnasium students.

To learn the nuances of photography, you do not have to travel far to nature and do not dive into a city hall, but you can come to the archives. To make paper and ink, leather and cardboard, metal and concrete come alive.

Thank you to the teacher, Kerly Ilves and everyone who took the pictures.

This fall season I noticed that some of my photos were published in www.tartu.ee official website and also on their Facebook site.

Below you can see some screenshots of my photos commissioned by Tartu City.

Not long ago I was contacted by an Estonian vegan magazine Vegan and they asked me to take photos of a vegan cake made by Elisabeth Emily Rosenberg. She is about to open her vegan cake business and it was a great way for her to get the foot between the door.

The location wasn’t the best and the light either, as I decided to use noon natural sunlight, which was really harsh, hence the shadows, but I think they add a lot to the photo itself. She was so kind to give me half of the cake, as she has made lots of those tester cakes and she can’t eat so much cake with her partner alone! Yipiii, I was so glad – perfect bonus on top of they pay I got from the magazine.

I am telling you, the cake is bomb – so-so good, definitely a must be for any birthday, wedding, gathering etc. And the best thing, is that you can find the recipe from the last issue or check their website for it!

After a very short preparation time, we organized a very quick photography exhibition in my photography class. It took only a week and a half to make the exhibition from the thought to putting it up in Tasku Center’s II floor.

We had October as a black and white month and one homework was called “Leaf/Sheet” and after going through so many wonderful photos it was clear what the theme for this year’s exhibition was going to be. I was honored to work with such good material, so it was a joy to organize this lightning fast exhibition. I had lots of fun, while taking photo of different leaves I found from my mother’s amazing garden. The lack of light and black and white, what you can possibly ask more. Go please and check my students and my photos to see if we did good.

Exhibition is opened every day from 9AM to 9 PM during weekdays in Tasku Center, Turu 2 in Tartu until 3rd of December. Please visit and enjoy some good photography!