Preserving Feelings: Diana Minabutdinova on Children, Women and Real Emotion
A Spicy Girl is a beauty editorial photographed by Diana Minabutdinova with model alenamar_kzn: red peppers and chillies pinned into a voluminous blonde updo or held up like a telephone and a monocle, against warm red and soft grey backgrounds, with a cream ruffled dress and a basket of peppers. It is one of the twenty editorials in MALVIE MAIN ISSUE 72, the 190-page, perfect-bound November 2026 main issue of MALVIE Magazine.
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Diana Minabutdinova: the interview
In almost two years of photography, you have already found your focus and taken part in exhibitions. What made you feel so quickly that this was the path you wanted to follow?
It didn't feel like a choice — it felt like recognition. The first time I photographed a child and saw that raw emotion on the screen, something clicked. I realized I wasn't just taking pictures; I was preserving feelings. Photography gave me a language for what I'd always felt but never knew how to say.
Children's photography asks for patience and the ability to catch moments that last only a second. How do you build trust with a child so that their true personality comes through in the image?
I never ask a child to pose. I get down to their level and ask about their favorite toy or their dream last night — anything that makes them forget the camera. Trust is built with play, not instructions. Once a child feels safe and a little bored of me, that's when they become themselves.
In your portraits of women, what do you look for in a person before you press the shutter, and what do you hope she sees when she looks at the final photograph?
I look for the moment she stops performing — shoulders drop, eyes soften. When she sees the final image, I don't want her to think "I look pretty." I want her to think "That's me." So many women have never seen themselves without judgment.
As a wife and a mother, how has your own family shaped the way you see childhood, womanhood and the emotions you choose to capture?
Motherhood taught me that childhood is messy and fleeting — so I chase truth, not smiles. Being a wife showed me how much tenderness lives in ordinary days. My family is my whole compass and support.
You love creative photo shoots. Can you tell us about one idea that started small in your mind and grew into something you are truly proud of?
It began on a spring night when the apple trees were in bloom. I couldn't sleep — an image kept appearing: a girl among the blossoming branches, her hair woven into them, her dress disappearing into the ground. She was the tree. I wrote to a girl who felt perfect for it, and she said yes. That's how "She Was Sakura" was born.
Exhibitions put your work in front of new eyes. What have you learned from seeing people react to your images, and where would you like your photography to take you next?
People don't react to the photograph — they react to themselves in it. That taught me photography is less about showing and more about reminding. Next, I'd love to create a larger body of work where these quiet emotions have room to breathe.
A Spicy Girl credits
Photographer: Diana Minabutdinova @midiana_foto
Model: alenamar_kzn @alenamar_kzn
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