**All images by Nina Nayko. Used with permission.**

Sitting in a coffee shop in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, I asked the barista which local photographers I needed to know about. Without a hint of hesitation, she told me, "Nina Nayko!" As I drank my sweet and slightly fruity Ethiopian coffee, I took out my iPhone and began browsing Nayko's work—I was instantly in awe.

Whenever I visit a new city, I always want to see it from a local photographer's perspective. Sure, I can share my point of view, but nothing captures the heart of a city quite like a photographer who has listened to it beat since the day they were born.

Nayko's work goes beyond the standard visual-documentary style. It captures the core of the city but presents it from the creative depths of her mind, serving it with a slightly ghostly tone. There's motion, music, and marvelous compositions. Piercing reds and vibrant oranges give architecture that already has character a further breath of life.

Her photography truly is a perfect example of how to present something that has been photographed millions of times in a fresh and exciting way.

The best part about her is that she isn't a gatekeeper. Rather than keep her artistic process secret, Nayko is helping millions of photographers around the world make captivating imagery, even if the only camera they have is on their smartphone.

It's with great pleasure that I was able to speak to Nayko and dig a little deeper into her life as a photographer, artist, and rare parrot owner—let's dive in.

About Nina Nayko

Nina Nayko is a young Georgian photographer with an impressive body of work. Her images and motions have helped her gather a large social media following, with currently 671,000 on Instagram and over 150,000 on TikTok. Beyond sharing her work and tutorials, Nayko also likes to share long from content through her YouTube channel.

Them Frames: Hey Nina! Please, talk to us about Tbilisi; what it means to you and how it inspires your photographic style…

Nina Nayko: I was born and raised here in Tbilisi. Even though I've lived here my whole life, I still find new compositions every day. Tbilisi has a very unique atmosphere, it is full of art, full of variety - any kind of streets and architecture: brutalistic, European, modern, traditional Georgian etc.

Most people here are very welcoming, fun and warm. So of course all of this keeps me inspired. I'm always inspired by my surroundings, even though my work is gloomy from time to time, I still get the positive energy from my city. It is also very photogenic, so indeed my city Tbilisi inspires me daily to take more and more photos.

Them Frames: How do you approach the final shot? As in do you have an idea of what it will look like beforehand or do you photograph freely and then let things progress after the fact?

Nina Nayko: Usually I just love to walk around and come across new places and fresh compositions. I very rarely have a vision beforehand, as it's the surroundings that makes me want to take the photo. But as soon as I take the photo, I know what kind of colors I'm going to edit them in, I know what kind of animation I will do and things like that.

Sometimes I don't even know that, I open the photos in the editor, cut them differently, move the layers around and accidentally come across a good composition to animate!

Them Frames: You make a firm point in your bio of “No AI” - Can you explain why and also what impact AI has had on creative photographers like yourself?

Nina Nayko: As my animations are very dependent on digital editing and are surrealistic, people assume it's generated with AI tools, when it's actually my work that AI steals from. My hard work, my ideas and fantasy are all ignored because of AI tools and AI "artists".

I don't need to prove that this work is made manually by me, I don't like that people can't grasp the concept of being an actual artist is still a thing - an artist who pours their heart and soul into the artwork creation process and message behind it.

I am not an AI hater, it is a great tool when used right, it can be used for fun, or for example to make technical processes easier and faster, but not to generate whole ideas and visuals and then call yourself an artist, this disrespects me and many people personally.

Them Frames: I think making photos and photo editing, although connected, are different artforms. Which one do you enjoy the most and why?

Nina Nayko: I firstly enjoy photographing, because it's my eyes that see the composition that triggers my brain to capture it, I love seeing compositions everywhere, even without a camera. But I also love the editing process, mainly color grading, because I love playing with colors, sometimes transforming the image completely.

But when I edit the photo - some people get it the wrong way - the colors and editing style I choose is on purpose, my camera can't capture the feelings I am feeling in that moment of taking the photo, so I'm using color grading as a tool to convey my feelings through colors on a flat image.

Get 10% off photo editing software Luminar Neo by using code: THEMFRAMES10 when you sign up.

Them Frames: Your concepts are truly spectacular. How much time do you spend tweaking before you’re satisfied with the final outcome? Are you a perfectionist in this regard?

Nina Nayko: It really depends on the piece I'm working on, sometimes it can take a few minutes to edit each photo, sometimes hours. Then assembling the video can be tricky, I love to sync everything with music, I do that by ear so it can take time to be perfect.

Sometimes I start the piece and can't really finish it, because I'm not really feeling it. I might come back to it after a few days or weeks with a fresh mind and ideas. I am a perfectionist, this is why it takes me hours to edit some of the photos, I want them to look very sharp and clean.

Them Frames: You have a YouTube channel: Important question first, who is the beautiful co presenter in your videos?

Nina Nayko: Boba is my new family member, he's a lineolated parakeet, my dream parrot species. He's quite rare to find and I accidentally came across it in a pet store in Tbilisi, it wasn't planned, but I couldn't leave the pet store without him.

He turned out even better than I've ever dreamed of, he's always chilling with me while I'm working, sits on the computer screen and lifts my mood up every day.

Them Frames: A lot of your content is educational, how does it feel creating valuable tutorials that can help photographers improve their work?

Nina Nayko: The reason why my art is successful is because it's accessible, it is firstly photography - something every smartphone can do, and even though some of my work is surrealistic, it is still made from everyday surroundings and simple techniques.

I love simplicity and I love to teach that these kinds of visuals can be achieved with a bit of knowledge of the editing programs, even on smartphones. The rest depends on your taste and experience, which is always evolving with practice.

Them Frames: If you had to choose a song or album to accompany your body of work, which would it be and why?

Nina Nayko: This is a very hard question to answer, as a content creator I've combined my audience's music taste with my artworks. I don't really listen to the type of music I'm using for my content, but it's now associated with that as I have to keep thinking about something trending and likeable for my audience to enjoy.

But in general, throughout my life and my art journey, the most inspiring musician was John Frusciante, as when I listened to his music it really helped my imagination roam free. I would probably pick the album "Shadows collide with people" or "the Empyrean", but it's a hard choice as each one of his older albums were very important through different phases of my art journey.

Them Frames: Finally, please finish this sentence. I need photography in my life because…

Nina Nayko: It taught me to appreciate the small and big details in sometimes boring everyday life. When everything is repetitive and dull, I can still find something interesting. It is basically like optimism, always looking for something good even in bad, and it is now very natural and has become part of my life to always see and appreciate and capture each moment.