Image Courtesy of the Artist.
For those who read SLEEK 76, you’ll have been introduced to Ukrainian photographer Daniil Kotliar where he spoke in conversation with two friends and fellow photographers Lesha Berezovskiy and Vladyslav Andrievsky. What unites these three photographers, beyond their collective experience of war and loss, is their ability to capture with such intimacy the seemingly everyday things that happen around them.
A self-taught photographer, Daniil has spent most of his life in Kyiv – though now he’s based in Paris – pursuing the art of image-making through a tendency to focus on traditions, personal memories and collective family experiences.
In that conversation, Daniil said something that really stuck with me: “Photography is joy and it’s also pain. It’s a way to really explore yourself. I work a lot with memories and so I’m thinking a lot about the past. Naturally, with that comes a lot of emotion. Over time, this emotion really builds up and you have to give it away to something, to feel some sort of freedom inside of you.”
Images Courtesy of the Artist.
This time this emotion, held still in photographs, is being given away through a book. Published by Ayvan, “13th January” is an homage to the Ukrainian holiday “Malanka” which occurs on the evening of the date the book is named after. After months of costume preparation, the tradition is celebrated in the Bukovyna region of Ukraine. Traditionally, the celebration aims to welcome Spring. Malanka, through the medium of a Carnival, appears as the representation of a beautiful girl, a metaphor for Spring, while dark forces and spirits appear in the form of devils. Launched at Sheriff Gallery in Paris last week, “13th January” also takes shape in an exhibition that will run at the gallery from 21st September to 01 October 2023.
In that same conversation earlier this year, Daniil shared a small insight into the book as it was being developed. “It began a while before the war started,” he shared, “but now in this new context, where Russia is trying to destroy our culture and traditions, the project takes on a different meaning.”
For the young photographer, to lend visibility to disappearing Ukrainian folklore and cult holidays is a way to both learn and preserve collective practices of Ukrainian culture and memory in the present world.
Images Courtesy of the Artist.