No one has ever photographed Ukrainian women like this

Reminding people about the forgotten photographic tradition of family portraits is the main goal of the exhibit “Sentimental Portraits: Four Generations of Women,” now showing at the A-HOUSE Gallery by the Kyiv-based artist Natalia Zhevaho. Four generations of women — great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers, and daughters — gaze down at visitors from the photos. The photographer says that life itself — the birth of her own children — inspired her to come up with this idea, and she dedicated the exhibit to all mothers and grandmothers.

“The main goal of the exhibit is to announce the show. I so want to find more families with four generations of women to expand the exhibit,” Zhevaho told The Day. “I like the mood that the photos exude. I feel it deeply and believe that I will be drawing inspiration from it to do further work. Maternal love is the only thing that can give us the strength and desire to create.”

This artistic collection is unusual in that the artist used as few technical gadgets as possible, while her models were free to choose their outfits and accessories to pose for the camera. Zhevaho looked for models among her acquaintances and placed ads in magazines. In some cases, families initially agreed to be photographed, but later backed out.

Vira Titova, a friend of the photographer, said that she heard Zhevaho talking about the show for more than a year. “I like the theme of the exhibit because it’s totally new. It looks as though there are ordinary people around us, but when you look closely at the photos you get the sensation that there is something unusual and subtle in them, something that is valued the most in human relations. These kinds of shows should be visited by entire families, just like my mother, daughter, and I did. If our grandmother were living, we would also have been part of this splendid project.”

Zhevaho plans on publishing a book, Sentimental Portrait, based on the exhibited works. Her only regret is that she failed to locate a family with five generations of women. “If I find a family with five generations, their photograph will be the star of the collection,” she says.

Among the visitors to the show was the artist Yevhenia Hapchynska. “I am overloaded with work, so I rarely go to shows,” she told The Day. “But Zhevaho’s oeuvre is a brilliant example of good taste and the profound talent of being able to see the beautiful. You can create a great and eternal piece of art out of an elderly woman sitting on a sofa. Natalia’s inner world will surely bring her show success. What strikes me most of all is the purity of perception of the picture. When you look at one of Natalia’s photographs, you understand that this is the way she sees the inner universe of every individual she photographs. So all she had to do was use good equipment and express what she feels and sees in these people.”

Zhevaho told The Day that the idea of showing the continuity of generations has not been exhausted. On the contrary, it has sparked a new idea to create a sequel called “Sisters.” “I am planning to take pictures of sisters over the age of 50. These people have already found a place in life, and it will be interesting for me to show the sisters’ inner world through photography,” Natalia says. “I want to take their childhood photos and compare then with their ‘adult’ ones. It will be interesting for me to reproduce the manner in which these sisters were photographed in childhood. This is how I want to bridge the age gap. I am still looking for sisters. So far, I have three pairs of sisters. I am also interested in adult twins and triplets.”

The project aimed at reviving the tradition of the family portrait has gotten off to a flying start. Our newspaper has a high appreciation for the art of photography. We extend our sincere congratulations to Natalia Zhevaho on her great success. No one seems to have photographed Ukrainian women like this before.