Photographic shops, photo studios and private photography courses. On the territory of modern Ukraine at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, photography became commonplace. Artists united in professional and amateur societies. Some people made millions from photographs and gained fame, and some went bankrupt and lost everything. Someone worked as a photojournalist for Soviet newspapers, and someone was a freelancer and travel blogger. Someone filmed the Russian emperor at the end of the 19th century, and someone in the mid-90s of the XX century — homeless children. All of them in one way or another contributed to the development of Ukrainian photography.
Julian Dorosh — filmmaker and photo artist who was among the initiators of the creation in Lviv of the Ukrainian Photographic Society (1930—1939). UFOTO is a union of Ukrainian photo amateurs of Western Ukraine, which united Ukrainian photographers, promoted the art and technique of photography. The society also organized photo exhibitions, in particular ethnographic content. One of the most famous exhibitions of UFOTO “Our Motherland in the Photo”, where Dorosh presented about 100 ethnographic photographs and won first place. In total, Dorosha's collection of photographs and films includes more than 8 thousand exhibits.
Sofia Jablonska-Uden (1907—1971) was the author of the first Ukrainian travelogues, cinematographer and photographer who traveled around the world, lived in China for a long time, and was buried in France. The Galician journalist actively filmed the most remote corners of Asia, Africa and Oceania. She illustrated her travel novels with her own exotic photos from travels. She was called “Miss Ukraine” in travels, because the woman never forgot about her own homeland and told foreigners about her native landscapes and life. Once in China, near her residence, she planted sunflowers and mallows, and also prepared Ukrainian dishes for the locals and embroidered towels with them and taught how to milk cows. Jablonska worked for the French television company “Indochina film”, but the work of the reporter was published in several publications of the time in Galicia: it caused a significant resonance and became a sensation. The life of the legendary woman was abruptly cut short in a car accident in February 1971, when the 64-year-old reporter headed to the publishing house with a book of stories and essays “Two Measures Two Weights”.
Museologist and ethnographer Danylo Figol (1907—1967) was interested in art photography rather than reportage photography. Figol participated in all exhibitions organized by UFOTO: in Galicia (eight exhibitions) and abroad. In 1939, the artist moved to Lviv and was the last head of UFOTO. After the war, Figol worked in the Ethnography Department of the Institute of Ukrainian Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the State Ethnographic Museum of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR: he researched applied photography and headed the toy fund. Throughout his life, he continued to photograph.
Carpathian artist, writer and folklorist Parasque Tile-Apricot (1927—1998) is considered a phenomenon of Ukrainian naive art and writing. She independently mastered the camera and for several decades documented the life and life of the mountain village Kryvorivnia in the Carpathians. Tile-Goritzvit was also engaged in icon painting: she created more than 100 icons, but 82 managed to be preserved.
Josef Khmelevskyi— the first photojournalist of Poltava, author of unique pictures from the life of the city, as well as its outstanding inhabitants. He is the author of an album of photographs about places related to the life of Nikolai Gogol, photographs from the opening ceremony of the monument to Ivan Kotlyarevsky (1903). In Poltava he had his own photo studio. Khmelevsky was an expert in technology and chemistry in photography, an innovator in this business, he made photographic plates with his own hands. In 1900, at the Paris World Exhibition, he was awarded a large gold medal and a special distinction of the French government.
Franz de Meiser (1830—1922) Ukrainian photographer originally from Volyn. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Vienna. At that time, the camera and other necessary equipment were incredibly expensive — but the investment was well reflected when in 1865 he successfully opened his own studio in the heart of the city at the corner of Khreshchatyk and Proriznaya. He was friends with Ukrainian actors, poets, writers, scientists. He left many portraits of Lesya Ukrainka. Franz de Meiser created a unique handmade album with views of Kiev. Already in the early 1870s, Mezer became one of the richest people in Kiev. On the wave of success, he tried to enter the hotel business, even built his own giant building on Khreshchatyk, but the idea failed. Meiser barely paid off his debts and returned to his usual business — photography. In addition to portraits, he also shot Kiev landscapes. His photographs preserved the quiet Kiev of the XIX century. Meiser worked in his photo studio until the Bolshevik coup. In 1918, the 88-year-old photographer was visited by Chequers and took away all the equipment and most of the negatives. Three years later, he died of a heart attack.
Oleksiy Ivanytskyi (1850—1920) was one of the first to engage in Ukrainian reportage photography. In 1888, he documented the accident of the imperial train near Kharkov. 21 passengers were killed in the crash and 68 others were injured. In the train was the Russian emperor Alexander III, who, unfortunately, was not injured. Ivanytsky opened his photo studio in Kharkiv back in 1882, but it was the story with the train that gave his career a powerful boost. Alexander III awarded him with medals and a ring with a diamond. The photographer several more times filmed the royal family as they visited the scene of the disaster. This event became so significant that a temple was erected at the site of the accident. During the revolution, he hid from the Red Army in the Crimea, where he managed to work for some time in a local studio. But still it was not possible to hide. He was killed by the decision of the so-called “troika”. In the questionnaire they wrote: “A nobleman, fled from Kharkov. Shoot.”
Irina Pap(1917—1985) was an outstanding photojournalist of Soviet Ukraine. For the newspaper Izvestia, she photographed many famous people of that time. In addition, she filmed the construction of the Kiev metro, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, fresh Khrushchevka, the first “Zaporozhtsy”, etc. She managed to maintain truthfulness in her works despite all party restrictions. In 1971, Irina founded her own photography school under the Union of Journalists of Ukraine. This is almost the first professional photo school in the USSR.
From the early 1960s until the collapse of the USSR Mykola Kozlovskyi was a special correspondent for “Ogonka”. The first serious work of the photographer was “Kiev Nuremberg”, the trial of Nazi prisoners, which took place right on the Maidan in January 1946. Then the pictures of the young Kozlovsky were appreciated. In 1948, he began shooting for “Ogonka”, and after 10 years he became a star photographer in the USSR with a bunch of awards and the main special choir for the USSR. He filmed Hutsuls in the Carpathians, Kievites on the streets of the summer city. Heroes of Kozlovsky's photographs became stars. Beautiful girls received letters from the military, and simple workers a successful photo could give a career boost. The photographer died in 1996 in Kyiv.
Igor Kostin(1935—2015) — Ukrainian photojournalist, cinematographer, member of the National Union of Cinematographers, National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Kostin documented the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and for this in 1987 received the first World Press Photo Award. His photo story “Chernobyl” was shot immediately after the accident at the nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986. He stayed in Chernobyl for the next 13 days. Twice descended to the 4th reactor, climbed five times to the roof of the 3rd, was exposed to radiation in 5 permissible doses. His photographs were presented in the Netherlands, the United States and the UN headquarters. In 2002, his photo album “Chernobyl was released. Confession of a Reporter”, it includes the best photo materials from the Chernobyl zone. In total, he won more than 10 international prizes, his photographs were included in the anthology “100 Reporters of the 20th Century”.
Oleksandr Ranchukov(1943—2019) documentary photographer. In 1986, he was among the founders of the Creative Photographic Association “View”. Since the 1970s, he photographed the architecture of Ukrainian cities, as well as the life of the streets of Kiev in the last years of the existence of the USSR. Ranchukov was a perfectionist in photography. He was almost the only photographer in Ukraine who purposefully captured (1970-90s) the image of a Soviet man in an urban environment. He was looking for the typical in behavior, in clothing, how the public reacts to a foreign car, etc. A special place in the work of Ranchukov is occupied by the landscape. Alexander spent months secluding himself in the forests, turning into an invisible part of nature.
Boris Mikhailov(1938) is the most famous contemporary Ukrainian photographer in the world. One of the founders of the Kharkiv School of Photography, which began its countdown from the creation in the early 1970s of the group “Vremya”. Works in the style of conceptual and social documentary photography. From the late 1980s, interest in unofficial Soviet photography began to grow in the West. Mikhailov actively participates in exhibitions abroad. Hasselblad Award winner, whose works have been exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world.
Oleksandr Hlyadelov (1956) documentary photographer. Winner of the Shevchenko Prize (2020). Member of the legendary Creative Photographic Association “Pozyod”, which for the first time in Ukraine focused its activities on the development of humanistic, truthful documentary photography (1987—1993). Addresses social topics: war conflicts, humanitarian crises, homeless children, prisons, HIV/AIDS epidemics, tuberculosis and hepatitis C, drug addiction. He does not consider himself a war photographer, although some of his work is devoted to wars and conflicts. He consciously takes pictures with an analog camera on black and white film and prints his own photos in his home photo lab in Kyiv. Alexander Gladielov believes that photography changes the world for the better.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Photographic shops, photo studios and private photography courses. On the territory of modern Ukraine at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, photography became commonplace. Artists united in professional and amateur societies. Some people made millions from photographs and gained fame, and some went bankrupt and lost everything. Someone worked as a photojournalist for Soviet newspapers, and someone was a freelancer and travel blogger. Someone filmed the Russian emperor at the end of the 19th century, and someone in the mid-90s of the XX century — homeless children. All of them in one way or another contributed to the development of Ukrainian photography.
Julian Dorosh — filmmaker and photo artist who was among the initiators of the creation in Lviv of the Ukrainian Photographic Society (1930—1939). UFOTO is a union of Ukrainian photo amateurs of Western Ukraine, which united Ukrainian photographers, promoted the art and technique of photography. The society also organized photo exhibitions, in particular ethnographic content. One of the most famous exhibitions of UFOTO “Our Motherland in the Photo”, where Dorosh presented about 100 ethnographic photographs and won first place. In total, Dorosha's collection of photographs and films includes more than 8 thousand exhibits.
Sofia Jablonska-Uden (1907—1971) was the author of the first Ukrainian travelogues, cinematographer and photographer who traveled around the world, lived in China for a long time, and was buried in France. The Galician journalist actively filmed the most remote corners of Asia, Africa and Oceania. She illustrated her travel novels with her own exotic photos from travels. She was called “Miss Ukraine” in travels, because the woman never forgot about her own homeland and told foreigners about her native landscapes and life. Once in China, near her residence, she planted sunflowers and mallows, and also prepared Ukrainian dishes for the locals and embroidered towels with them and taught how to milk cows. Jablonska worked for the French television company “Indochina film”, but the work of the reporter was published in several publications of the time in Galicia: it caused a significant resonance and became a sensation. The life of the legendary woman was abruptly cut short in a car accident in February 1971, when the 64-year-old reporter headed to the publishing house with a book of stories and essays “Two Measures Two Weights”.
Museologist and ethnographer Danylo Figol (1907—1967) was interested in art photography rather than reportage photography. Figol participated in all exhibitions organized by UFOTO: in Galicia (eight exhibitions) and abroad. In 1939, the artist moved to Lviv and was the last head of UFOTO. After the war, Figol worked in the Ethnography Department of the Institute of Ukrainian Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the State Ethnographic Museum of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR: he researched applied photography and headed the toy fund. Throughout his life, he continued to photograph.
Carpathian artist, writer and folklorist Parasque Tile-Apricot (1927—1998) is considered a phenomenon of Ukrainian naive art and writing. She independently mastered the camera and for several decades documented the life and life of the mountain village Kryvorivnia in the Carpathians. Tile-Goritzvit was also engaged in icon painting: she created more than 100 icons, but 82 managed to be preserved.
Josef Khmelevskyi— the first photojournalist of Poltava, author of unique pictures from the life of the city, as well as its outstanding inhabitants. He is the author of an album of photographs about places related to the life of Nikolai Gogol, photographs from the opening ceremony of the monument to Ivan Kotlyarevsky (1903). In Poltava he had his own photo studio. Khmelevsky was an expert in technology and chemistry in photography, an innovator in this business, he made photographic plates with his own hands. In 1900, at the Paris World Exhibition, he was awarded a large gold medal and a special distinction of the French government.
Franz de Meiser (1830—1922) Ukrainian photographer originally from Volyn. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Vienna. At that time, the camera and other necessary equipment were incredibly expensive — but the investment was well reflected when in 1865 he successfully opened his own studio in the heart of the city at the corner of Khreshchatyk and Proriznaya. He was friends with Ukrainian actors, poets, writers, scientists. He left many portraits of Lesya Ukrainka. Franz de Meiser created a unique handmade album with views of Kiev. Already in the early 1870s, Mezer became one of the richest people in Kiev. On the wave of success, he tried to enter the hotel business, even built his own giant building on Khreshchatyk, but the idea failed. Meiser barely paid off his debts and returned to his usual business — photography. In addition to portraits, he also shot Kiev landscapes. His photographs preserved the quiet Kiev of the XIX century. Meiser worked in his photo studio until the Bolshevik coup. In 1918, the 88-year-old photographer was visited by Chequers and took away all the equipment and most of the negatives. Three years later, he died of a heart attack.
Oleksiy Ivanytskyi (1850—1920) was one of the first to engage in Ukrainian reportage photography. In 1888, he documented the accident of the imperial train near Kharkov. 21 passengers were killed in the crash and 68 others were injured. In the train was the Russian emperor Alexander III, who, unfortunately, was not injured. Ivanytsky opened his photo studio in Kharkiv back in 1882, but it was the story with the train that gave his career a powerful boost. Alexander III awarded him with medals and a ring with a diamond. The photographer several more times filmed the royal family as they visited the scene of the disaster. This event became so significant that a temple was erected at the site of the accident. During the revolution, he hid from the Red Army in the Crimea, where he managed to work for some time in a local studio. But still it was not possible to hide. He was killed by the decision of the so-called “troika”. In the questionnaire they wrote: “A nobleman, fled from Kharkov. Shoot.”
Irina Pap(1917—1985) was an outstanding photojournalist of Soviet Ukraine. For the newspaper Izvestia, she photographed many famous people of that time. In addition, she filmed the construction of the Kiev metro, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, fresh Khrushchevka, the first “Zaporozhtsy”, etc. She managed to maintain truthfulness in her works despite all party restrictions. In 1971, Irina founded her own photography school under the Union of Journalists of Ukraine. This is almost the first professional photo school in the USSR.
From the early 1960s until the collapse of the USSR Mykola Kozlovskyi was a special correspondent for “Ogonka”. The first serious work of the photographer was “Kiev Nuremberg”, the trial of Nazi prisoners, which took place right on the Maidan in January 1946. Then the pictures of the young Kozlovsky were appreciated. In 1948, he began shooting for “Ogonka”, and after 10 years he became a star photographer in the USSR with a bunch of awards and the main special choir for the USSR. He filmed Hutsuls in the Carpathians, Kievites on the streets of the summer city. Heroes of Kozlovsky's photographs became stars. Beautiful girls received letters from the military, and simple workers a successful photo could give a career boost. The photographer died in 1996 in Kyiv.
Igor Kostin(1935—2015) — Ukrainian photojournalist, cinematographer, member of the National Union of Cinematographers, National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Kostin documented the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and for this in 1987 received the first World Press Photo Award. His photo story “Chernobyl” was shot immediately after the accident at the nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986. He stayed in Chernobyl for the next 13 days. Twice descended to the 4th reactor, climbed five times to the roof of the 3rd, was exposed to radiation in 5 permissible doses. His photographs were presented in the Netherlands, the United States and the UN headquarters. In 2002, his photo album “Chernobyl was released. Confession of a Reporter”, it includes the best photo materials from the Chernobyl zone. In total, he won more than 10 international prizes, his photographs were included in the anthology “100 Reporters of the 20th Century”.
Oleksandr Ranchukov(1943—2019) documentary photographer. In 1986, he was among the founders of the Creative Photographic Association “View”. Since the 1970s, he photographed the architecture of Ukrainian cities, as well as the life of the streets of Kiev in the last years of the existence of the USSR. Ranchukov was a perfectionist in photography. He was almost the only photographer in Ukraine who purposefully captured (1970-90s) the image of a Soviet man in an urban environment. He was looking for the typical in behavior, in clothing, how the public reacts to a foreign car, etc. A special place in the work of Ranchukov is occupied by the landscape. Alexander spent months secluding himself in the forests, turning into an invisible part of nature.
Boris Mikhailov(1938) is the most famous contemporary Ukrainian photographer in the world. One of the founders of the Kharkiv School of Photography, which began its countdown from the creation in the early 1970s of the group “Vremya”. Works in the style of conceptual and social documentary photography. From the late 1980s, interest in unofficial Soviet photography began to grow in the West. Mikhailov actively participates in exhibitions abroad. Hasselblad Award winner, whose works have been exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world.
Oleksandr Hlyadelov (1956) documentary photographer. Winner of the Shevchenko Prize (2020). Member of the legendary Creative Photographic Association “Pozyod”, which for the first time in Ukraine focused its activities on the development of humanistic, truthful documentary photography (1987—1993). Addresses social topics: war conflicts, humanitarian crises, homeless children, prisons, HIV/AIDS epidemics, tuberculosis and hepatitis C, drug addiction. He does not consider himself a war photographer, although some of his work is devoted to wars and conflicts. He consciously takes pictures with an analog camera on black and white film and prints his own photos in his home photo lab in Kyiv. Alexander Gladielov believes that photography changes the world for the better.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
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.
