Roman Vilensky is a long-time acquaintance of the newspaper Den who has been taking part in our photo exhibitions for many years. A non-staff photographer of the Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv, he is cooperating with many publications. Roman graduated from the Chernihiv Higher Vocational School of Domestic Services, where he got a profession of photographer/photo artist, and recently – the Kyiv National University of Culture and Art where he got a profession of cinema and television cameraman. Since 2009 he has been a member of the National Association of Photo Artists of Ukraine, and in spite of his young age he has already held solo photo exhibits. The recent Den’s Photo Exhibition has brought more prizes to Roman than ever: he won five awards on the whole. The company Coca-Cola Ukraine marked his work In Trend, the National University “Lviv Polytechnic”– his photo A Freckled Girl, and the Kraina Mrii festival and Embassy of Georgia in Ukraine – The Dream of a Patriotic Girl. Besides, his work A Freckled Girl has won the third place in the category “Audience’s Favorite.” The Day asked Roman Vilensky what helped him achieve this.
Roman, I know that it is not the first time you take part in Den’s photo exhibition.
“This is my seventh photo exhibit. I have been submitting my works since 2008 and always at least one is included in the exposition. Last year there were five photos, but no category, this time five photos have been selected, and three of them have won awards. On the eve we met with my colleague Borys Korpusenko and he predicted that this year Den would probably exhibit many photos from Maidan. And it has happened this way. Apart from that I have seen at this Photo Exhibition many photos of the war, blood, on the whole things that are hard for perception. I wanted to see more good things: the shots I have submitted to the competition were mostly oriented at positive things. It is pleasant that there are many patriotic photos. Incidentally, a real rise of patriotism this year could be observed in particular on the Independence Day – I had never seen so many national symbols in one place before. I was overwhelmed with emotions on that day.”
How were the prize-winning works created?
“I shot The Dream of a Patriotic Girl on the Independence Day. I saw a group of dark-skinned students or tourists wearing our national symbols, with one of them, probably a father, holding a girl in embroidered shirt. I was impressed by this image, and I wanted to share it. I made the photo In Trend on the Independence Day after the Parade of Embroidered Shirts. A girl wrapped in a blue-and-yellow flag, with blue-and-yellow band and bracelet was talking on the phone with blue-and-yellow wall in the background. That was something I couldn’t ignore. I think her figure indicated faith in good future of Ukraine, in spite of all current troubles. Apart from that, owing to the diagonal lines this photo has a specific dynamics. I made the photo A Freckled Girl in Odesa last fall. Toothless and freckled, the girl seemed extremely cute and charming to me. Two more photos, both dedicated to religious rituals, were included in the exposition. One of them from Bar Mitzvah of a 13-year-old boy, where the culmination of the festival was captured: his first prayer of an adult man. It is considered that on this day a boy becomes a man, and parents are no longer responsible for his deeds. In the photo except from the hero of the event his father and both of his grandfathers are present. Another photo shows children of our friends, three-year-old Abraham and four-year-old Sara making a V sign. Interestingly, although they are young, they can speak Russian, English, and Hebrew.”
Does being religious influences somehow your work as a photographer?
“The difference is maybe in the fact that I don’t work on Shabbat, i.e. from Friday evening till Saturday evening, as well as on Jewish holidays, when I’m not allowed to make photos. Because of this I, for example, cannot make photos of weddings that are held on Saturdays. Lately I have started to work more frequently at various Jewish events. When women are present there, I have to bypass them carefully, not to touch them. But on the whole, religiousness does not influence the process of shooting: the same smiles, emotions, children, parents. This naturalness cannot be substituted by anything else.”
In your opinion, have relations between Jews and Ukrainians undergone some kind of changes lately?
“In fact, they have become somewhat closer. Everyone has understood that hysterics of the Russian Federation concerning fascism and anti-Semitism in Ukraine is almost always a simple provocation. I think all the incidents and conflicts that have taken place indeed were mostly organized by Russia. Ukrainian and Jewish nations have been living next to one another for hundreds of years. For my whole life I’ve communicated with people from different religions and different nationalities: Ukrainians, Armenians, and Tatars were studying with me in the university. I have never felt any problems. In the world there are not so many countries, where different nations feel really comfortable. I have studied in a Ukrainian-language school, in a Ukrainian university, I like this country, and I’m not going to leave it in the near future.”
The Ukrainians you saw at Den’s Photo Exhibition, what were they like?
“This year the entire world has seen Ukrainians, something many people dreamed about. Of course, we did not expect it would happen this way. The word ‘Ukraine’ sounds in a new way now: nobody says anymore that this is a part of the former USSR. Ukraine is a separate country, a part of Europe; it has national symbols and national ideas of its own. The level of patriotism in Ukraine has very much increased over recent months. At the same time we have experienced much sadness and tears. All this can be seen in Den’s photos. In spite of difficulties, our spirit has very much risen, the society has united and stood, therefore the photographs show unbreakable optimism.
“Den’s Photo Exhibition is the only annual photo competition of such a scale in Ukraine. No other newspaper or photo union deals namely with photo journalism. The National Union of Photo Artists of Ukraine holds several exhibits every year, but their specifics are absolutely different: they work with landscapes, still lifes, portraits, etc. But they are unable to pay attention to photo journalism as well. Only Den deals with it. My colleagues and I think that what Larysa Ivshyna and your newspaper are doing is one of the leading phenomena of photography life in Ukraine.”
