Winter philosophy

Lviv-based photographer Yurii KALYNIAK is sure that this year’s winter, rich in snow, may present talented photo artists with numerous wonderful topics for creative expression. His work Hutsul Haiku has enchanted hundreds of visitors of Den/The Day’s photo exhibit, held in October 2012 at the capital’s Museum of Contemporary Art. According to the results of people’s voting, his work was among 10 best photos. The photo has also won a special prize from the competition’s partner, VITIS GROUP Company. The author says that the photo is a result of “photo hunting” in the Khodivsky farm of Putyl raion, Chernivtsi oblast.

“On the eve of the Feast of the Intercession in the second decade of October 2009, after heavy rains it suddenly started to snow – the ground got right away covered with a 10-centimeter snow blanket,” Kalyniak says, “Surprised at nature’s whims, I grasped my camera and ran out behind the farm, hoping to make a few interesting shots. I was right in my presentiment. As I was making photos of nature, I noticed a beautiful black horse running about on the pasture. For some reason I came up with a desire to chase the horse silently. The animal was naively hiding under the tree probably because it feared the snow. While it was standing moveless, I managed to make a few good shots. In Hutsul Haiku I was on the one hand impressed by the laconism of the content, and on the other hand, the philosophic implication, the real artistic value of the plot.”

Yurii Kalyniak admitted that in photography he above all appreciates the possibility to give a deep philosophical sounding to real pictures from ordinary human life. And Hutsul Haiku is only proof of this.