REVIEW: "Don't Look Away," a photography exhibit at UIMA (05/23/04)

REVIEW: "Don't Look Away," a photography exhibit at UIMA

by Irene Zabytko

CHICAGO - Documentary photographs are an amazing conduit for reawakening the collective consciousness of past events. This is especially true when the images represent tumultuous or tragic events that are forgotten in the midst of whatever current turmoil is occurring in our own worlds.

No matter how far we are removed from the past, the best documentary photographers like Robert Capa's classic images of the Marines landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day, or Steve McCurry's famous National Geographic photo of the traumatized unnamed Afghani girl, immediately causes the viewer to revisit that time and place, and reconnect to that particular history.

Like Messrs. Capa and McCurry, three young photographers of Ukrainian descent are also documenting their striking images which command viewers to reconnect to and remember their chosen subjects: the Ukrainians who are victimized by Chornobyl and AIDS, and other trauma. The photos are on display at Chicago's Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in a group show featuring the work of Alexandr Glyadyelov from Kyiv, and two Ukrainian Americans, Adrienne Kovalsky and Joseph Sywenkyj.

The show is aptly titled "Don't Look Away" because that is what the viewer is inclined to do when first approaching these heart-wrenching and poignant photos of children and adults ravaged by disease, poverty and pain.

But after the initial shock subsides, the images by each of the photographers are beguiling, and often sublime without ever white-washing the harsh realities that each of the portraits reveals.

Mr. Glyadyelov's compelling work documents drug addicts and AIDS patients in Ukraine. The black and white portraits are gritty and honest, but Mr. Glydayelov still captures his subjects' humanity despite their torment and afflictions.

Ms. Kovalsky's photos, also in black and white, feature a patient undergoing heart surgery in a Ukrainian hospital. Despite the limited, almost primitive conditions, Ms. Kovalsky's work also illuminates the care and heroic fortitude of the staff.

But it's the color photography by Mr. Sywenkyj that I was personally drawn to, particularly the ones of the Chornobyl victims. One of the most unforgettable is the portrait of the little girl named Martushka, a Chornobyl victim at the Lviv Regional Children's Special Clinic. Martushka is wearing a pretty dress and clutching a doll. Her hair is shorn, her complexion pale, and yet her eyes are not at all child-like, but those of a much older, wiser person who simply accepts her life with tremendous calmness and courage. In the caption near the photo, we learn that she died soon after this picture was taken.

In another Chornobyl-related photo, an old woman sits inside her home in "the dead zone." There is a map on her kitchen table; plants appear to thrive on her window sill. Her hands are clasped as if in prayer, and her face exhibits simple gratitude.

Other photos of the Chornobyl victims are from orphanages in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaluchia. In these, malformed children are seen struggling in their cots. One of the most memorable is that of a child lying on his stomach, his crippled limbs wrapped in a blue blanket but raised high in the air as if ready to fly. Despite his deformities, his beauty and innocence are still visible.

No less captivating are the series of photos Mr. Sywenkyj took of a family coping with AIDS. The parents, Ira and Sasha, are both HIV-positive and worry over the fate of their newborn, Maria. The child survives a coma after the couple nurses her back to health in their home, while their other children carry on by playing together in the tense household.

Singular photos of other AIDS victims are also included. In one, a woman named Olya wears her wedding dress for the photo. She stares at the lens in defiance; her wearied, pretty face demands attention and respect. In the caption, Mr. Sywenkyj states, "she was the happiest I ever saw her."

Anya Antonovych, curator for "Don't Look Away," selected the unflinching and profound photos by these three outstanding photojournalists based on certain criteria: to honor the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art's commitment to showcasing young talent, and reminding the Ukrainian diaspora that "the reality of Ukraine is severely at odds with the romanticized conception of our ancestors' land that exists in so many of our memories." Another reason, she added, is to inform the general public of Ukraine's prevailing difficult conditions so as to engender "a reaction not of guilt, but of human responsibility."

All of the works by these three talented photojournalists are powerful reminders of the tragedies Ukrainians are still enduring in a country that is not always remembered by the rest of the world.

| Home Page |