London - The photographer and his stunning girlfriend who leads him around the world by the hand first caught the attention almost a year ago.
And in the past 11 months, Russian couple Murad Osmann and Nataly Zakharova have taken their signature picture in many more exotic locations, wearing ever more elaborate outfits.
Murad, 28, who documents their travels by taking photos from his point of view as he is led to the four corners of the globe by Nataly, 27, is now set to release a book of their romantic pictures.
From the gondolas of Venice to the jungles of the Far East, each image shows his extended hand holding on to his partner’s in front of him.
With her back turned away from the camera, we never see her face as she guides the viewer to some of the globe’s most exotic and iconic landscapes. She is seen in a variety of outfits, from hoodies, dresses and bikinis to barely anything at all.
Murad, an executive producer for the film company Hype Productions, started his journey in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2011.
Since then they have travelled to dozens of locations, including Moscow, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bali.
The couple have also visited Madrid, New York City, Miami, Monaco and Istanbul for Murad’s work.
Murad said Nataly, a journalist from Moscow, was the inspiration for the project.
“The first photo happened in Barcelona while we were on vacation,” he said.
“Nataly was a bit annoyed that I was always taking pictures of everything, so she grabbed my hand and tried to pull me forward.
“That said it didn’t stop me from doing photos while she was pulling me. So that’s how it all started.”
Murad graduated as a civil engineer from the Imperial College London, but later decided to pursue a career revolving around his passion for photography and started his own production company.
“It might seem that I have a lot of free time, but actually we travel mostly for three to four days abroad due to me being always busy at work,” he said.
“Her outfits are definitely not Photoshopped,” says Murad.
“A lot of people are saying that I overuse HDR (high-dynamic range) effect on my images, but to be honest these are not really HDR images. I am just boosting micro contrast in Photoshop and I am doing all that from just one photo,” he says.
Two weeks ago, the images were included in an Art Basel exhibition at the Versace Mansion in Miami in collaboration with American artist Alec Monopoly.
The couple are now planning to bring out a book.
“We are already in contact with a publisher in US and will have our book published in the autumn,” says Murad.
Murad posts his Follow Me (#followmeto) photographs on his Instagram page, which has more than 580 000 followers. This is more than 23 times the amount he had in February last year.
Daily Mail