Such people do exist

The indifferent attitude towards disabled people and striking them out of social life is an invincible post-totalitarian tradition. The govern­ment did not want to “spoil” Soviet people’s reality and did its best so that there were no physically challenged people in the streets. Since the 1940s they were isolated in the nursing homes: children had to study and adults were supposed to live out their days there (the ominous symbol of this attitude was the island of Valaam where dozens of disabled war veterans lived). The disabled people who lived at home received monetary support from the state and could not even imagine that in other countries employers give pos­sibility to earn money to the blind, mentally disabled people and to those who cannot walk. Naturally, the whole of our infrastructure in the streets, shops, public institutions, etc. did not provide for the possibility for wheelchair-bound invalids to ride or special traffic lights for the blind. These people are still isolated. The inclusive classes for visually impaired children, children with infantile cerebral paralysis or Down’s syndrome and healthy children studying together are still rare. However, being in one space with disabled people children learn helping each other, sympathizing with them, cultivating better human features and, finally, realizing that the world varies and needs both healthy and unhealthy people in it. Serhii KUZMYCH, the participant of Den’s Photo Competition who had sent us the series of works “Such People Do Not Exist” told our newspaper how he had realized it.

How did it occur to you to take the photo of people lifting a mannequin in a wheelchair upstairs in the subway? Why did you use a mannequin and not a real person?

“I am the author of the project “Such People Do Not Exist” that I am realizing with Kateryna Smyrnova’s help. She is a wheelchair-bound invalid and was present at the exhibit opening... Photojournalism is supposed to take photos of some ‘topical’ events since this information will be sold. The high-quality journalism has lost in value to some extent: one can take photos like Kozyriev or Maksymishyn do, they are both known photographers, but it does not draw any response in people’s hearts, especially in Ukraine. As a photographer I can tell you that photos published in Den/The Day attract the most attention out of all the photos published by the printed media. The rest is dabbing. This tendency exists not only in Ukraine but all over the world.

“So, I thought what could be done to make these photos resonant regardless of the place I send them: the exhibition or the newspaper. My first task is to make people see them and at least say that it is ‘cool’ and then make them pay attention to the problem. I was pushed by the accident in my family: my daughter went to the honeymoon trip and had a car accident there. This is a tough and sad story that has not fi­nished yet. Her leg was badly injured and in order to rehabilitate her after six months she had spent in the hospital, we tried to entertain her, take her to a cafe or somewhere. When walking I was very upset because of the stairs since it was very difficult for her to take her leg to every step. I was irritated: where are all the facilities that a European capital is supposed to have!? Once we were sitting in a cafe and I saw my future colleague Kateryna Smyrnova. Her look struck me since we are used to the fact that most of disabled people look bad and, in all appearance, feel pariahs. And she was well-dressed, beautiful and self-confident girl in a wheelchair accompanied by her gorgeous mom. I saw it only in movies or abroad. I realized a striking thing that though I have ne­ver been an indifferent person I have ne­ver paid attention to such people. But the most striking thing I realized was that formerly I tried not to think about si­mi­lar unpleasant things in order to pro­tect myself from negative emotions and thoughts. It is a vicious circle: we do not want to see something unpleasant because it is unbearable but it does not disappear. We live as if such people exist neither in Kyiv nor in Ukraine. We do not see them in the streets because they cannot use our roads and pavements since standard wheelchairs do not fit them. If the media touch upon this topic they usually tell some weepy stories usually addressed to the government since it did not do something it had to. My project is addressed to everyone and aims at creating the intolerable attitude of our society towards this situation.

“My friend from Canada once wrote me: ‘You know we have everything for the physically challenged people, however, there are some drawbacks. It is outrageous.’ There disabled people are members of society enjoying equal rights and I realized that we have a vicious circle: we do not see these people (because we do not have the needed infrastructure), so we are not indignant. My endeavor is to try to break this circle showing that such people exist. First I wanted to make a photo story about Kateryna: a beautiful well-dressed girl who studies and speaks two foreign languages. However, later I thought that if I take photos of her and present them: ‘look, a poor wheelchair-bound girl,’ it will give the usual result like: ‘Look, she is one-eyed and can superbly draw.’ It will be an entertainment to please the crowd. Gradually, we came up with a conclusion that we should depersonalize the character in order to make a resonant material. Thus the idea with a mannequin occurred. A mannequin is something that one would not feel sorry for. So I made the reportage: the mannequin was moved around and I took a lot of photos.”

How did passersby react to your photo session?

“I started this project in August: I uploaded my works to Facebook and they drew a wide response. The people who saw the photos and people’s bewilderment on them said that people’s reaction meant censure. In fact, these people completely understood what we were doing, I did not expect it (I even made leaflets to distribute to the passersby but later I refused this idea). When asked what I was doing I replied: ‘I am doing the project ‘Such People Do Not Exist.’ Everyone caught on at once when hearing this title. So, nearly everybody approved our photo session. By the way, when I placed the photos on Facebook the information about us spread: we were invited to the morning program on TVi, the site of Welle Deutsche wrote about us and other editions published their materials about us, too.

“One more example from my life: I have a neighbor (we live in a private house), his family is great. Their son is a wheelchair-bound invalid. They taught him, bought him a car though they are not wealthy people. Moreover, this guy got married. When I told him about my project he told me how difficult it was for him to mentally rehabilitate when this accident happened. He said that such people’s emotions spurn other people from them. I did not see it! At the same time we have good examples not only in Kyiv. For example, what struck me in Boryspil is that the owners of the shops make normal ramps for wheelchair-bound invalids. These are the islands of wisdom that are not interconnected. My work is, of course, quixotism but I want to do my best – publish my photos in your newspaper, participate in your exhibition – so that we are noticed and the things go better. I have already sent a selection of photos to Spain and will upload my photos to photo banks. There will be one more series of photos in which you will see that mannequin’s depersonalization is relative: it will get a face, the one of Kateryna Smyrnova.

“Once I heard Mikhail Zhvanetsky being asked about his attitude to the si­tuation in a Russian airport: a blind person was not allowed to the plain of the Siberian Airlines. Zhvanetsky replied that the difference between a healthy person and a disabled one is a moment… That is why my endeavor is to stir up the public. I will do it this year, next year, in 2025 and in 2045. The society has to realize that something is wrong: the question who should care about disabled people is not their concern but the one of those who have two arms and two legs. The society has to tell physically challenged people: ‘We need you’ so that not only the government dealt with disabled people’s problems but all of us in order to demonstrate that the count­ry has to be changed. We do not have to fight against the current go­vernment but first of all change our people’s mentality.”