VIY PRELUDE Vozianov FW17/18 with Alexandra Kutas

I was born in Ukraine, in a large industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk. My family was worker’s family and it did not have a single person associated with the photography or art. When I was 14, I started path of photography myself, when I was able to buy my first Kodak film camera with the money from washing cars. Shooting people, their lives and the industrial city of the post-Soviet space, made me feel as a part of their history. It is a pity that the price of the film was so high, because I had to sell ice-cream and wash cars to pay for each shutter. Since then, I know the value of each frame. Most of the people in my life were connected to criminal life of 1990s, which was completely killing the sense of art in every person.

When I was 16, I was very inspired by NG magazines bought in the co-op and all my childhood I dreamt of being part of it. At the end of the school I applied to journalism faculty, but under the influence of my family had to transfer to the mathematical profession that promised a bright future at the factory. I did not give up on photography and most of my free time, I was experimenting with the camera and developing documentary and reportage direction. After graduating from the University and receiving 2 degrees in mathematics and economics, I decided to start life with a clean slate, in which the first word is the photography. A few years later, a mediator between my dream and the work was the camera. Photography for me is primarily a way to express my feelings and experiences to the world, philosophy of social expression of images through by camera and light.

Most of my life I have dedicated to journeys, life in Asia and other countries. In 2008, studying the culture of the people of Asia and the Middle East, I worked as a freelancer on personal projects and commercial orders by NG, Geo, Traveler. My life has been amazing, taking a piece of each of the cultures of all the countries from Pakistan to Indonesia. I was becoming a part of the community which I wanted to tell about. In 2009 I gave birth to a wonderful son, Dima and since then, everything that was part of my life was my family and photography. In 2012 my wife and I emigrated to Italy, Milan. where I enrolled in the BA of photography in the European Institute of Design. During the next 3 years, I have studied and worked on documentary projects and reports in Europe, most of which have received awards at various international photo festivals. From 2013 to 2016 I was a commercial photographer for NIKE, then began working with the organisation Medicine sans Frontiers for a project about mass migration of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and their integration into European society.

Wonderful world around us and distorted reality of the present. War, epidemies, hunger, and emigration. By the mass media it all affects the formation of a new society. We change. The world is changing us. Each frame made with a sense of now, is valuable for the future as a trace of the past of the mankind.Using the senses and the technique I see through the lens those stories, secret and invisible to the naked eye, that are hidden in society. Humanity, respect for nature and love for the family, all this gives me an opportunity to feel the peace, to empathise, to see the time and document it. Photography is as the air in my world, I want to breathe more and more, learning more and more unexplored boundaries between the world and the humans.

Taking the camera in my hands, I know for sure and see what I want to make and how to convey it to the audience. The principles of my work - to be beyond the possible, shooting war to become a soldier documenting immigration to become an immigrant. Each frame made with the soul - is unique, has a value, and as an important moment, can be only one. Photography that I create is a design of space and time combined into a single image. Semiotics, sociology, history and other sciences help me in making these and new stories. In my work, photography - is a way of communicating with people and the world, to be next to them, feel them, watch with their eyes. I know the path I have chosen, and I am thankful that life has given me the chance to see the world differently.