Camera instead of a brush and easel

Archival Fund of the outstanding Ukrainian photographer Volodymyr Olkhomiak has been presented at the Potocki Palace of Borys Voznytsky National Art Gallery in Lviv. The opening of the exhibition is dedicated to the 22nd anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence.

By creating a fund of Volodymyr Olkhomiak Lviv National Art Gallery intends to preserve the collections and archives of the talented photographer, which present a significant contribution of the artist to the treasury of the Ukrainian photo art. In his career as a photographer he took pictures of nature, architectural and monumental buildings, many of which have long been gone, people, who made their contribution to the cultural, spiritual, and national development of the new Ukrainian state. With a camera Olkhomiak took records of castles, fortifications, fortresses, ramparts, palaces, monasteries, churches, bell towers, artistic meetings, exhibition openings, museums, and simply vibrant moments of Ukrainian life.

Photo master is well respected among creative people and is considered to be a true professional. Olkhomiak says that he traveled all over Ukraine, taking photos for the Lviv Historical Museum, Lviv Special Scientific Studio for Restoration and Production of Architectural Monuments of Ukraine, for Lviv Art Gallery, where he worked for a certain period of time. All in all, he collected invaluable photographic material – there are over 30,000 of films only that have historical, scientific, and artistic value.

The photo artist was born on November 25, 1929 in the village of Dobuzhok near Lublin in Poland. There he received primary education. In 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army, together with his family Olkhomiak moved to Ukraine – to Kirovohrad, where he lived until 1945. Since then his life has been connected with Lviv. He studied here at the Department of Painting at the Lviv School of Applied and Decorative Art. However, he chose photo camera for creative realization instead of a brush and easel.