At the Zbirka bookstore on 2a Zolotovoritska Street, every book is more than just a printed text. Each publication on the shelves has its own special story, intertwined with human destinies, art, and accidental discoveries. The bookstore offers such areas as art and design, architecture, culture and history, sociology and psychology, photography and books about photography. The founder of the bookstore, Natalia Kuzmenko, turned her love of literature into a unique space where past and present merge, and each publication becomes a part of Kyiv's soul. We asked the founder of the bookstore about her unusual project, in particular about photobooks.
— Natalia, how did you come up with the idea for the project?
— I first thought about the bookstore as a student of the Faculty of Philology at Karazin University 10 years ago. I developed a brand strategy and even came up with the name “Book Bro”. At the age of 20, I thought it was a daring naming. However, while I was looking for investors, a bar was opened in the premises of the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Mykola Lysenko, which I wanted to rent. Now this room is covered with plywood outside, it seems to be empty. 10 years later, I retired from the Armed Forces and returned to my dream of opening a bookstore. At some point, I was faced with a choice: buy a used 2013 BMW 3 convertible or open a bookstore. I chose the latter, one of the factors being the lack of a parking space in the yard. Three months later, the Zbirka bookstore appeared at 2a Zolotovorotska Street, with a parking space. By the way, we won this space from a sex shop that also wanted to rent it. The spiritual won out over the physical.
— Why do you call Zbirka an independent bookstore?
— An independent bookstore is a format of a non-network, local bookstore that is not owned by publishing houses. The key difference is freedom of choice, a curatorial approach to book selection, and the ability of the owner to make decisions about the values, principles, and mood of the place.
— How do you manage to fill the shelves with new books?
— In general, it's not easy: searching for books, preferably rare ones, contacting their owners. And then: documents, ordering, delivery, explaining to couriers how to find us, unloading boxes, arranging delivery, calling the Reporters editorial office to tell them that they sent the wrong thing, and repeating all the previous steps again, and then finally putting the books on the shelves. Or you can take the easy way out and hire someone, like Masha, to do it all for you.
— Is it possible to buy any books here or is it more of a library/museum/gallery format?
— We sell everything in the bookstore. Even books from my own shelf. It's just a matter of price.
— Tell us about the “guest bookseller” format?
— The Guest Bookseller format came about as an idea in response to my critical need for a weekend. At least once a week, I need to take a break and have someone take over for me. So I started inviting friends who would support this initiative. Communicator Olya Nosko and Marichka Blindyuk have already tried their hand at being bookworms. As for the next guests, we are just making a schedule. If you want to try yourself, write to us on Instagram @zbirka_bookshop.
— Tell us about some special photo books for you. Maybe there are books with an interesting story?
— The most special photo edition for me is my first photo album, and it is not for sale.
In fact, every book has an interesting story to tell. For example, once during a party, I lightly agreed to a venture to partially sponsor the printing of an important book about Ukrainian art by the Shcherbakovsky brothers (Oleksandr Savchuk Publishing House, Kharkiv). In the morning, I had a headache from both the party and the invoices that had to be paid. However, the choice was a good one, and we sold all the books ordered by Zbirka from this edition.
The most interesting part begins when photographers tell the story of the photo: they add context, expand the field, frame the main part of the photo with the opening and ending, creating a unique story outside the frame. I was lucky enough to hear such stories from Oleksandr Liapin about his photos from the book Holes, Mykhailo Palinchak about his photos from the book Independent, Dmytro Stoykov's story about his photos from the book Flow, Vladyslav Musienko about his photos from Maidan, also in the book Independent, and Oleksandr Chekmenyov about his photos from the book Donbas.
— Tell us about the publications in Zbirka dedicated to photography.
— The photography section is curated by photographer Mykhailo Palinchak. He finds the best available photobooks around the world and puts them on the shelves of Zbirka. As for interesting publications, everyone will find something here. People evaluate books differently. In this respect, books are somewhat similar to photographs. Roland Barthes writes about this very accurately in his book “Camera lucida”. He explains that the value of a photograph is given by the recipient. What may be ordinary for you is extremely important for someone else.
Once I was buying books from a private library and among a pile of expensive and rare art books I found a photo book with street photography of Kyiv in the 90s. It was an ordinary catalog-type book with a soft cover. The owner of the library agreed to sell me all the books except this one, with the comment “I won't sell it for any money,” which surprised me. It turned out that one of the photos showed his grandmother and mother walking happily down Khreshchatyk in their youth, both of whom are now deceased, and this photo is a fond memory, a certain point for the owner in the book. Instead, I once bought a photo book by Martin Parr very cheaply from a bookseller, who was simply not interested in him. In fact, I have a story about every book on my shelf, but let them remain untold for now. Let them lie down.
Nowadays, the Zbirka bookstore is open every day: from 12:00 to 20:00 on weekdays, and from 10:00 to 21:00 on weekends.
The material was created by:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vera Labich
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
At the Zbirka bookstore on 2a Zolotovoritska Street, every book is more than just a printed text. Each publication on the shelves has its own special story, intertwined with human destinies, art, and accidental discoveries. The bookstore offers such areas as art and design, architecture, culture and history, sociology and psychology, photography and books about photography. The founder of the bookstore, Natalia Kuzmenko, turned her love of literature into a unique space where past and present merge, and each publication becomes a part of Kyiv's soul. We asked the founder of the bookstore about her unusual project, in particular about photobooks.
— Natalia, how did you come up with the idea for the project?
— I first thought about the bookstore as a student of the Faculty of Philology at Karazin University 10 years ago. I developed a brand strategy and even came up with the name “Book Bro”. At the age of 20, I thought it was a daring naming. However, while I was looking for investors, a bar was opened in the premises of the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Mykola Lysenko, which I wanted to rent. Now this room is covered with plywood outside, it seems to be empty. 10 years later, I retired from the Armed Forces and returned to my dream of opening a bookstore. At some point, I was faced with a choice: buy a used 2013 BMW 3 convertible or open a bookstore. I chose the latter, one of the factors being the lack of a parking space in the yard. Three months later, the Zbirka bookstore appeared at 2a Zolotovorotska Street, with a parking space. By the way, we won this space from a sex shop that also wanted to rent it. The spiritual won out over the physical.
— Why do you call Zbirka an independent bookstore?
— An independent bookstore is a format of a non-network, local bookstore that is not owned by publishing houses. The key difference is freedom of choice, a curatorial approach to book selection, and the ability of the owner to make decisions about the values, principles, and mood of the place.
— How do you manage to fill the shelves with new books?
— In general, it's not easy: searching for books, preferably rare ones, contacting their owners. And then: documents, ordering, delivery, explaining to couriers how to find us, unloading boxes, arranging delivery, calling the Reporters editorial office to tell them that they sent the wrong thing, and repeating all the previous steps again, and then finally putting the books on the shelves. Or you can take the easy way out and hire someone, like Masha, to do it all for you.
— Is it possible to buy any books here or is it more of a library/museum/gallery format?
— We sell everything in the bookstore. Even books from my own shelf. It's just a matter of price.
— Tell us about the “guest bookseller” format?
— The Guest Bookseller format came about as an idea in response to my critical need for a weekend. At least once a week, I need to take a break and have someone take over for me. So I started inviting friends who would support this initiative. Communicator Olya Nosko and Marichka Blindyuk have already tried their hand at being bookworms. As for the next guests, we are just making a schedule. If you want to try yourself, write to us on Instagram @zbirka_bookshop.
— Tell us about some special photo books for you. Maybe there are books with an interesting story?
— The most special photo edition for me is my first photo album, and it is not for sale.
In fact, every book has an interesting story to tell. For example, once during a party, I lightly agreed to a venture to partially sponsor the printing of an important book about Ukrainian art by the Shcherbakovsky brothers (Oleksandr Savchuk Publishing House, Kharkiv). In the morning, I had a headache from both the party and the invoices that had to be paid. However, the choice was a good one, and we sold all the books ordered by Zbirka from this edition.
The most interesting part begins when photographers tell the story of the photo: they add context, expand the field, frame the main part of the photo with the opening and ending, creating a unique story outside the frame. I was lucky enough to hear such stories from Oleksandr Liapin about his photos from the book Holes, Mykhailo Palinchak about his photos from the book Independent, Dmytro Stoykov's story about his photos from the book Flow, Vladyslav Musienko about his photos from Maidan, also in the book Independent, and Oleksandr Chekmenyov about his photos from the book Donbas.
— Tell us about the publications in Zbirka dedicated to photography.
— The photography section is curated by photographer Mykhailo Palinchak. He finds the best available photobooks around the world and puts them on the shelves of Zbirka. As for interesting publications, everyone will find something here. People evaluate books differently. In this respect, books are somewhat similar to photographs. Roland Barthes writes about this very accurately in his book “Camera lucida”. He explains that the value of a photograph is given by the recipient. What may be ordinary for you is extremely important for someone else.
Once I was buying books from a private library and among a pile of expensive and rare art books I found a photo book with street photography of Kyiv in the 90s. It was an ordinary catalog-type book with a soft cover. The owner of the library agreed to sell me all the books except this one, with the comment “I won't sell it for any money,” which surprised me. It turned out that one of the photos showed his grandmother and mother walking happily down Khreshchatyk in their youth, both of whom are now deceased, and this photo is a fond memory, a certain point for the owner in the book. Instead, I once bought a photo book by Martin Parr very cheaply from a bookseller, who was simply not interested in him. In fact, I have a story about every book on my shelf, but let them remain untold for now. Let them lie down.
Nowadays, the Zbirka bookstore is open every day: from 12:00 to 20:00 on weekdays, and from 10:00 to 21:00 on weekends.
The material was created by:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vera Labich
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
UAPP is an independent association of professional Ukrainian photographers, designed to protect their interests, support, develop and promote Ukrainian photography as an important element of national culture.
UAPP's activities span educational, social, research and cultural initiatives, as well as book publishing.
UAPP represents Ukrainian professional photography in the international photographic community and is an official member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) — an international organization representing more than 50,000 professional photographers in Europe and other countries around the world.
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