“No need for words”
Schoolchildren and cadets visited Den’s Photo Exhibit. What did our young guests discern and see in the photos?
“We do the same!” said a cadet of Kyiv Bohun Military Lyceum, pointing to Oleksandr Klymenko’s photo A Fashionable Haircut. The picture shows soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a dugout at the Donetsk Airport, getting machine haircuts from their comrades. Recently, the fourth, fifth, and sixth companies of Kyiv Bohun Military Lyceum visited the Lavra Gallery, where our exhibition is being held. We offered a tour of the exhibition to the cadets. The boys were very interested in military-themed photos and would like to know the detailed history of each such picture, asking when and under what conditions it was taken, which units the soldiers on picture belonged to and so on. In addition, the cadets laughed a lot at satirical portraits of Ukrainian politicians.
As soon as the cadets left, eighth- and ninth-graders of Kyiv’s Comprehensive Sanatorium Boarding School No. 20 came to the exhibition venue. “Our principal saw information about the exhibit, was interested, and suggested that children take a look at it. The children do find it interesting,” Boarding School No. 20’s extracurricular activities coordinator Oleksandra Koteniova shared her thoughts. “Some photos are very emotional, even excessively so. When looking at some of them, it is hard to avoid crying. Some, on the contrary, are full of good feelings. I remember well the photo showing a man touching a foot of a dead soldier in the open coffin, it is called Farewell and was taken by Mykhailo Markiv. I spent a few minutes staring at it, because some friends of mine are serving in the Donbas now, and the topic of the war is a priority for me. I also liked the pictures of the children. Their emotions are genuine. The contrast itself, as child photos and images of war are put beside each other, is striking.”
Our young colleagues, members of the reporters’ club created at the Information and Creative Agency YUN-PRESS of Kyiv Palace of Children and Youth, also visited the 17th Den’s International Photo Exhibit. During their tour of the exhibition, the children asked many questions, dealing with not just the war but the journalist work as well. For example, they asked how best to photograph dangerous events: clashes or fighting. The young reporters had the luck to have their questions answered by winner of one of this year’s Den’s photo contest’s Grands Prix Ruslan Kaniuka. Kaniuka’s work Justice Shuts Its Eyes, which received the award, impressed Tetiana Vorontsova, a member of the club. “When looking at this picture of a court hearing in the Gongadze case, there is no need for words, since everything is clear,” Vorontsova said. “It seems to me to be the essence of the photographer’s work: to get the message, the situation pictured to the viewer without any need for words. Judges are ashamed. They do not know what to say and how to behave, it is visible in their faces.”
Yelyzaveta Nevska’s photo Sparks has made a lasting impression on Hlib Bilous, another YUN-PRESS agency’s reporter. “I like when only a human silhouette is visible in the photo, highlighted by something, just like this,” Bilous explained. “I am glad to have visited the exhibition, since it has expanded my horizons. All works on display are patriotic in nature. They show what sacrifices people make for Ukraine. Should soldiers of the anti-terrorist operation visit Den’s Photo Exhibit, they will have more inspiration and motivation to defend their country.”
