Images from Ukraine

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You are part of the show The Ukrainian Issue at Fotogalleri Vasli Souza, which coincide with a theme publication from Uncertain States Scandinavia. What are you presenting in the exhibition and publication?

In the newspaper and exhibition, I’m presenting the works of my students as well as my works, which were made since 24th of February and the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine 

We want to show people the situation which is on going in Ukraine for almost a year now, but mostly not in the documentary way, but more with an artistic and conceptual approach. 

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In parallel with your own extensive artistic practice, with exhibitions world wide from Tokyo to Kyiv, you are the founder of a photography school in your hometown of Mykolaiv, with a focus on conceptual and artistic photography. What motivated you to start this school?

In 2018, when I was the recipient of the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, I felt that I had enough experience for that time to find some young, ambitious artists who were interested in photography in my hometown Mykolaiv, and help them to get deeper in it.

It all started from a local story and simple courses of 12 lessons, then we made some exhibitions and I saw that I can’t do it anymore without my students and lessons. So I created MYPH collective, organized new courses and the school started to grow and now five years later, we have a huge amount of teachers, lecturers, students, and we are one of the biggest photography schools and the most active photography school in Ukraine for the moment.

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Your school, MYPH, was founded in 2018 only four years prior to the on going Russian invasion of Ukraine. Have you managed to keep the school up and running, in a period when university buildings in Mykolaiv have been struck by missiles?

Yes, the school was founded in Mykolaiv, but with Covid we went online. That has helped us to gather students from all over Ukraine and to be more international with Ukrainians abroad, so it gives me an opportunity to work and to make the projects with my school. So yes, we are running online and we have for the last course, which started in December, a record like 45 students in the class

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MYPH and Oslo Fotokunstskole is about to do an international collaboration between the Ukrainian and Scandinavian students and faculty. Could you say a bit about the plans for this collaboration? 

Yes that’s amazing and I’m really happy that we can go into this collaboration with Oslo Fotokunstskole. Firstly I’m going to make my artist talk and some portfolio reviews there, and also then we’re going to make some online lessons with the teachers from Oslo Fotokunstskole and MYPH to exchange some experience and to make student projects etc. 

I hope that it will be a great collaboration between our schools and it’s really very important to make MYPH more and more international. 
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THE EXHIBITION THE UKRAINIAN ISSUE AND THE LAUNCH OF UNCERTAIN STATES SCANDINAVIA TAKES PLACE AT FOTOGALLERI VASLI SOUZA THURSDAY 19TH OF JANUARY 18:00. PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: XENIA PETROVSKA, SERGEY MELNITCHENKO, MARY JANE, OKSANA NEVMERZHYTSKA, MARIIA HORSHKOVA, YANA HRYHORENKO, ARTEM HUMILEVSKYI, DIANA FEDORIAKA, VERONIKA MOL. THE SHOW IS ON DISPLAY UNTIL FEBRUARY 19TH.