By Yaryna KOVAL, The Day
No one has counted his exhibits and awards, and he is nor sure himself.
Maybe a natural attitude for an artist who has for nine years been recognized
by the US Association of Art Photographers as the best among its members
in the former USSR.
Recipient of nine grand prizes and winner's diplomas in exhibits varying
in importance and scope (including numerous international contests), originator
and organizer of Ukraine's first art photography clubs in Zaporizhzhia
and Donetsk, he spent fifteen years as head of Kyiv's Central Photographic
Studio, appointed to the post by a commission of the Party Central Committee
(although not a Party member himself) in recognition of his professionalism;
author of photo portraits of hundreds of Ukrainian and world personalities
(cultural figures and statesmen, the latter ranging from Ukrainian Communist
leader Volodymyr Shcherbytsky to Saddam Hussein), Roman Baran was one of
the first to be awarded the prestigious title "Art Photographer of Ukraine."
He is a veteran member of the International Art Photographers' Association.
His titles and kudos could be listed on and on. Accolades are not the point,
however. At present, this Lviv-born 72-year-old artist is the main creative
and editorial force of the journal, Svitlo i Tin (Light and Shadow),
and the point is that Roman Baran has spent decades studying women. He
is one of those who not only glorify the fair sex, but also - and mostly
- attempts to have an insight into the woman's soul. The latter, revealing
one innermost recess after the next, remains a mystery. Woman's soul has
for thousands of years been subject to painstaking study and inspired portrayal,
yet no one has ever succeeded in developing a more or less credible pattern.
I wanted to know more about this and other things, so I visited his studio.
LOVE AND BE LOVED
IN RETURN
Roman Baran developed an aesthetic fancy for watching women many years
ago, thanks to his father, also an artist who painted models at home, together
with colleagues. At six Roman was quite knowledgeable of female forms and
proportion. He could tell beautiful shoulders from proletarian ones, the
way a woman's stomach should properly look. And he learned all this not
from Greek statues. Well, not only by watching cold marble. Incidentally,
such observations would forever turn him away from prostitutes. It happened
when he and a friend, both in their teens, visited a brothel. "I took one
look at her young fragile body with a bluish hue, saw the pimples, thin
bow legs, and tiny breasts (one seemed positioned higher than the other)
and knew it just wouldn't work with me. Ever." This became an extremely
important stage in his understanding of the opposite sex.
"Every time in the street I try to spot a pretty woman and take a closer
look at her. As soon as I can see her face clearly I know whether she is
in love. Our face is our calling card. After a woman has had good sex her
state of infatuation, fulfillment will be there for another 5-6 days. Now
a woman who has been without a man long enough turns into a nonentity.
In other words, woman's beauty starts precisely when with a man. What scares
me is that out of ten ordinary women hurrying past on their way to work
or home only one or two love and are loved in return. I mean it is high
time men and women started thinking this problem over. Very seriously."
TOUCHES TO
THE PORTRAIT
"Mr. Baran, what type of women attracts your attention in the first
place?"
"Interesting and intelligent. An interesting woman stands out among
all others almost instantly. Her intellect is reflected in her eyes. It
is on her lips. It cannot be hidden. An intelligent woman either rises
very high or falls very low, but is never anywhere in between, on the philistine
level. She thinks and sees the world around her differently. You can talk
to her for hours discussing a multitude of subjects and never feel bored.
This does not depend on her profession but primarily on her education.
Without an adequate education a person does not have those very pillars
upon which rests one's ego. In a way such a person is dead."
"Following your logic, how did you build your own relationships with
women? I am sure there were not only refined erudites among those visiting
your studio. There must have been a couple of perfectly mediocre specimens..."
"I tried to seize on those moments when they were their true inimitable
selves, the way I was taught in my youth. And this no longer means relationships,
because when I work with nude models I seldom feel like walking up and
kissing any of them. They just don't have that spark in them which ignites
the fire in your heart. And by spark I actually mean some cosmic energy
that can be accumulated in one's soul and then explode. As for my relationships
with women, I have always tried to build them on a fifty-fifty principle.
My life experience says that it is impossible to have an ideal woman without
ever stealing a critical glance at her, for if you think you have one you
may well be on your way to the funny farm. I have always remembered that
every woman is deep inside a far bigger sinner than any man. A man may
fall very low without even feeling ashamed, but a woman will always keep
her dark side out of sight. A woman may walk around the house nude for
hours on end and think nothing of it. A man will never do that. Women,
especially university graduates, are given to exhibitionism, something
very seldom found in men. And a lot more nuances, so they must be carefully
considered."
"After all, women are not that bad. Or are we? Artists and literati
have dedicated their best works to us. Men have fought and won with our
names on their lips. We have been taken pride in, even idolized. Thus we
must have something that makes men love us so."
"Absolutely. Love and respect for women. This is the leitmotiv of my
new book, The Woman. It is made up of 17 essays and collages. I
am preparing it for publication together with Ihor Hurhula, a young writer
and journalist. We must always remember that every woman is a born actress
and great one at that. If she wants to seduce a man she can instantly change,
become an entirely different person. After all, it's in her blood, although
I may sound like a male chauvinist, but man's urge to be always first,
always on top, has been there since time immemorial."
"You have spent 15 years in Kyiv, 8 years in Zaporizhzhia, 6 years
in Donetsk. Now you live in Lviv. Are women any different in those areas?
"Personally I find women in Lviv to have a special inner charm, yet
Kyiv women are even more interesting. The former have a distinct flaw:
they are artificial and overstate their piety; yet they are enigmatic,
something that makes men fall for them head over heels. Kyiv women are
more straightforward, be it Miss Kyiv or a hooker. Among those I photographed
were real beauties, I mean great ones. Women in Zaporizhzhia are an altogether
different story. Lacking femininity, killing themselves by smoking and
drinking, workaholics, with a mentality maimed by socialist holdovers.
I feel very sorry for them. And those in Donetsk are even more different.
Interesting, totally relaxed and uninhibited. Free love or just sex is
their watchword. It was in that city that I first met so many nymphomaniacs
with university degrees. Yet this is not a disease, rather modern morals.
There is a theory that says when idols fall people flee to eroticism. Women
in Donetsk are a case study."
"What about love? Does this mean that the times of Tristan and Isolde
are gone forever?"
"Like I said, hard as one tries to have an insight in a woman's soul
it will remain a mystery. In other words, love cannot just vanish into
thin air. Falling in love with an idol of your own working, a dream that
disappears once you open your eyes, is another thing. I wrote in one of
my essays, 'Every love, even the most elevated one, serves to destroy one's
sweetheart to use him/her as a medium for one's own supreme being. A woman
thoroughly mysterious, irresistibly charming, violently magnetizing will
enter your life as a godsend just the same. So you can experience pain...
tears... love...'"








