Igor Amelkowitsch lives and works in Chelyabinsk, in the south of the Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union. He graduated from the Chelyabinsk Institute of Applied Sciences with a degree in radio engineering. From 1985 to 1987 he did his military service in the Soviet army, posted near Vladivostok on the Pacific coast by the Chinese border. He used his diverse musical talents, touring from 1988-89 with Art, the rock group, through many cities at home. He is married to Tanya and their daughter Alyona was born in 1993. Igor only began to take photographs seriously in 1999, first with a Nikon F-60. In 2002 he changed to a Hasselblad 503CW and medium format photography.