His work of eighties-tinged images which he describes as a reflection of personal opinions via surreal mash up of art and fashion photography explores the fine line between uniformity and individuality with a healthy dose of irony and exaggeration. We took the chance to interview Pudelka and learn more about his analogue photography, creative approach and his love for Lolita-girls.

When I was in Foundation Year at Parsons Paris studying fashion I had to buy a camera to capture the development of my projects. Soon, I started to take pictures of friends and myself. I immediately fell in love with it. I found a whole other dimension through the lens.

Personally, I think it really depends on the individual. For me, dropping out of the school was the best thing that could have ever happened. It gave me a great slap of reality. I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and also how I had to do it.

It influenced my work very much. Understanding the garment that you are shooting is essential to good fashion photography. I also love to create clothes for shoots myself. It kind of helps to achieve a more personal and deeper conceptual feeling.

Thank you for the nice words! I hope my style is still developing a little bit. At the beginning, I was only working on self-portraits, collages and some videos. Then, I started shooting girls on film. What makes my style different is probably the fact that I don’t really look at other people’s work. I like to stay in my own world and be true to myself.

I guess I don’t have any secrets. I only work on projects that I love very passionately. But what really helped me get started was flickr and tumblr – that’s where my work got noticed. Then magazines and everything else came along and it grew bigger and bigger.

My agent and I decided it might be easier for me to live here and collaborate with London based publications and galleries. But my Slovakian roots definitely influenced my work a lot. The environment of communist architecture and mood is still one of my biggest inspirations.

Mostly, I get inspired all of a sudden - while watching the Simpsons or on the way to the tube. I always carry around my sketchbook, so I won‘t miss an idea if it comes along. When I’m not feeling inspired it’s usually the sketchbook that kicks in some inspiration and helps me to get started. Also my boyfriend’s sound poetry is a great source of inspiration for me, you should check him out on Soundcloud – it’s Ben Oni.

Sketching is very important. I always draw all the images that I’m planning to shoot. So there is always some sort of “blueprint” for the final photo. I think this makes everyone’s work so much easier. After that it’s quite simple. I get up at 6:30 and spend the whole day on set taking pictures.

It’s not a fetish but a fascination, plus it’s what people want to see. It’s the easiest way to communicate with masses – to bubble wrap your point of view, your intention, in something beautiful. Then people will look at it.

Because for me film is perfection. There is nothing better than the grainy feeling of a photograph. With only a certain amount of frames available you have to think a bit harder before releasing the shutter. I’m not a big fan of taking 1000 images per set up. I rather take 20 good ones.

Personally, I think it’s not important at all. In some of my best photos the models are only wearing straps made out of old fabric and it looks like it’s worth a fortune. Glamour and luxury is just an illusion.

I have a lot of projects lined up and summer is going to be quite busy for me. In a couple of days, I‘m shooting an editorial for i-D, which I’m super excited about. But in general, my aim for the future is to keep getting better with every photo I take.