The focus of this year is not so much an emotional component (although it remains a thing one can hardly do without), but the understanding of the events Ukraine is going through. This year’s exhibition is a continuous intersection of viewpoints. The views of visitors coincide with those of the military, looking back through dugouts, trenches, armored vehicles, and tanks; with those of politicians (which have completely different personalities, appearance, and looks), those of IDPs, volunteers, artists, and children... This exhibition will become a kind of polylog between the spectators, the photographers, and the characters. And believe me, words will not be necessary to understand everything – the whole drama of our common experience, and our common path to overcome it...
“Assessing the photographic material sent for the exhibition, I see the drama of overcoming, the drama of the situation our country finds itself in now. This is the level of politics and the personal level, the ‘living sector,’ where Ukrainians take their strength from. Many of those are reflected, actually, in the name of one of our books – the Catastrophe and Triumph. And by catastrophe I mean not only the pictures of military,” says Larysa Ivshyna, Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief. “I would say that the biggest drama in people, traumatized by the 20th century, who did not receive help from their country, and even more – in the early 1990s they were sent by the destructive path, so now they devastate themselves and all that is around them. Look at the picture from an illegal operation of amber extraction – this is one of Hell’s horrors. This is The Forest Song. Requiem. Or take the Apocalypse photo, which depicts storks in the middle of the burned-out field. What if they change their mind about living near us? However... On the one hand – this depicts the bottom of the abyss, the apocalypse, and the amber hell. On the other – these photos show us moral heights, similar to those where people stood on their knees saluting dead soldiers.”
The 16 years of photo history, 111 exhibitions in 31 Ukrainian cities, 702 photographers awarded – that is the history of Den’s International Photo Contest in the figures. This year’s statistics is no less impressive – about 200 applicants have sent more than 3,000 photos. The 350 best ones were selected by the jury. And very soon, on November 6, there will be the official opening ceremony of the exhibition at the Lavra gallery. According to Mykola Tymchenko, jury member of the Photo Contest and Den’s photography editor, the contest has seen a lot of works from the ATO zone, with many photos of fighters submitted by professional photographers and volunteers alike. “Traditionally, there are many political photographs, but there are also a lot of genre pictures of ordinary life. It shows that the war is not the only thing people think about,” Tymchenko says.
In addition to regular contest nominations: namely “Events,” “Life as it is,” “Politics,” “Genre Photography,” and “World through the eyes of children,” there are some new ones. Thus, a new nomination was founded by the UNDP project “Building a new country together,” which includes the following sub-nominations: “I reform the country,” “The new Donbas,” “The resettlers. Living again!” and “Clean and green Ukraine.” For the first time, this year will also see the awards for the best photographers in the category of “Birds of water bodies.”
Photos presented at the Den’s exhibitions were often called prophetic. So, perhaps this time you will also see not only how Ukraine lived through the past year, but how she will live through the next one.
The exhibition will be hosted by the Lavra gallery (1 Lavrska Street) from November 7 to 15. The entrance is free.
