THE UKRANIAN EXHIBITION Lost Europe: On the Edge of Memories was curated by Milena Kalinovska. It presented 75 black and white documentary photographs that survey rural Ukrainian life between 1991, the year of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and 2018. These photographs capture a simpler but disappearing world, accelerated by the barbarian war presently being raged by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The works were created by three Czech photographers, Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský, and Martin Wágner, who spent their adulthood in the devastated societal, political, and economic scene of Eastern European countries under Soviet-led communism. They provide viewers with a close look into the world of rustic Ukraine and its people. After the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991, the photographers observed and recorded the transformation of the every day life in the Ukraine countryside.

The imagery on display falls within the genre of documentary photography that has a long and rich international history. At the onset of the 20th century, photography was evolving into a new visual language with documentary photography becoming a significant vehicle for democratic communication. This type of photography presents straightforward images of events, people and places, most often focusing on important historical or political moments. As cities grew so did the degrading conditions of workers in big-city slums and the brutality of child labor. It was the work of many dedicated photographers that led to social justice and reform.

Left: Jan Dobrovský, Villager, Svalovychi – Volyn Province, 2017. Pigment print on archival cotton paper, 19 ¾ x 15 ¾ inches.

Lewis Hine was a staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, who over a spam of thirteen years took thousands of pictures revealing children working across the country in mills, sweatshops, factories, and street trades, such as newspaper delivery. Jacob Riis’s photographs became the book Other Half Lives, in 1890 and his photographs were catalyst for citywide reform. Riis’s work today remains a model for individuals and urban policy makers dedicated to urban social change. In France, Eugene Atget, for over 35 years with his large view camera, documented the streets, gardens, and courtyards of the 19th-century city—old Paris. He created an encyclopedic, idiosyncratic portrait of Paris on the cusp of the modern era as Paris was being deconstructed by the Haussmann project of beautification. His images of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization are of historical significant. Finally, Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) who discovered Atget, brought his body of photographs to the USA. After her absence from New York City for eight years, she was struck by the dramatic alteration of the city with new constructions brimming everywhere. Skyscrapers became the new norm as hundreds of 19th-century buildings had been torn down. Abbott was determined to capture this momentous change in her photographs. After five year she concluded a collection of pictures that today is considered to be one of the monumental achievements of 20th-century photography.

Right: Karel Cudlin, Odessa, 2012. Pigment print on archival cotton paper, 19 ¾ x 15 ¾ inches.

The photographs in Lost Europe depict a place in transition and of loss. The pictures expose a world that many in the West cannot identify with because the photographs reveals clues of a turbulent past and bare bones existence. To some, such work might appear depressing– It is not! The pictures depict a reality that is and will only worsen because of the tragic war. The people portrayed are proud, hardworking and persevering.

In this exhibition one sees a barren snowy land with dilapidated Soviet buildings, industrial factories spewing smoke next to a river, a timeworn Jewish cemetery with headstones misaligned and bunched together at the edge of the road, groupings of ducks toddling near decapitated statues, and desolate rural landscapes. The photographs in Lost Europe evoke a kinship to Walker Evans and James Agee’s book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Working in the style of a Farm Security Administration project Evans and Agee spent eight weeks researching their subjects, focusing mostly on three white sharecropping families mired in desperate poverty. Similar in simplicity and poverty to the Ukranians, Evans disclosed families with gaunt faces, adults and children huddled in bare shacks before dusty yards in the Depression-era of the deep south.

Left: Martin Wágner, In front of school, Slavske, Carpathian Mountains – Lviv province, 1998. Pigment print on archival cotton paper, 31 ½ x 23 ½ inches.

Lost Europe is a display that is smartly hung on the second floor of the Katzen Center that reveals themes and stories about the people and the land they occupy. The three photographers, having lived under Communist rule, approach their subjects with compassion and empathy. Never are they critical—collectively they demonstrate a tender sensitivity to the people.

What is touching about this exhibit is its underlying humanity. The people may have very little in terms of material goods yet they show a determination to survive. They seeks comfort in their families and friends and find moments for pleasure including fishing, listening to music, children rollicking in the snow and beautiful, young school girls in black and white uniforms laughing and enjoying the day. The people may be poor yet education is very important to them as revealed in the photographs of classrooms filled with children and teachers.

This is exhibition is a celebration of the common person and its surroundings. Milena Kalinovska wrote, “Their motivation is to capture something authentic, a certain mystery of nature and its inhabitants through documentary, almost lyrical photographs, which, although straightforward and accurate, have ageless intensity.” As one observes in Dorothea Lange’s WPA photographs sensitivity to individuals and families who are ‘down and out’, here too is powerful collection of pictures that uncovers a private side of underprivilied life. It is a timely show that hopefully could provide viewers with insights and empathy for the Ukranian people. The book LOST EUROPE, accompanying this display, is excellent, filled with potent pictures that provide an astute glimpse into Ukraine!

By Elaine A. King, Contributing Editor

The exhibition features over 75 photographs taken between 1991 and 2018. Through these images, step into a place full of the poetics and drama of a world that will soon be gone forever.

Karel Cudlín, Photographer
Jan Dobrovský, Photographer
Martin Wágner, Photographer
Milena Kalinovska, Curator

The exhibition is presented by the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic and 400 ASA.