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Poet of photography

Images of 20th-century Ukraine in Vasyl Pylypiuk’s works and in his gallery

Photo by Vasyl Pylypiuk

“He is a poet of photography; he sees the beauty of life and people everywhere. He can find that very angle from which he will tell what we simply do not notice,” emphasizes Roman Lubkivsky, the Taras Shevchenko National Prize winner. “He stops the moment and transforms it into eternity…These things make him a unique master in Ukraine and far beyond its borders. He can combine unsurpassed skill with business qualities.”

For Pylypiuk the syncretism of Ukrainian culture includes indivisibility of the Truth, Beauty, and Good, i.e. the categories, which are furiously attacked by a surrogate of a foreign mass culture – commercials, thrillers, action movies, pop music, pulp fiction, porn, gory films, and so on. Distrust in one’s own national culture is a sign of alienation from the Ukrainian nation and the issues of its development. Pylypiuk is working selflessly, providing for the moral and psychological recovery of Ukrainians, who are duped and crippled by foreign ideology and politics. He opens a window into the great world of knowledge, Ukraine’s recognition, and love for it.

“Vasyl Pylypiuk is one of the greatest historians of Ukraine. His images of 20th-century Ukraine will survive centuries,” says Dmytro Pavlychko in reference to his art works. “I am pleased to know that my native land gave to the world a world-scale artist, a master of light and shadow.”

At each of his numerous exhibits in such countries as Russia, Poland, Canada, Germany, the USA, Turkey, France, Austria, Morocco, Moldova, Great Britain, Azerbaijan, Latvia, and others, the Honored Artist of Ukraine Vasyl Pylypiuk opens before the world community the most interesting, inspiring, and important Ukrainian diversity, love for freedom, invincibility of the national spirit, pride, tolerance, and the generosity of Ukrainians. Having established Ukraine’s first and world’s best photo gallery, Vasyl Pylypiuk is now organizing powerful photo exhibits, noted Willy Suys, head of the Patronage Service of the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP). In June 2009 he opened the first international photo salon, where 250 photo masterpieces from 39 countries were presented.

By reviving the photo magazine Light and Shadow, which was issued in Lviv in 1933–39, Vasyl Pylypiuk, associate professor and honored doctor of the Ukrainian Academy of Typography, made a great contribution into the treasury of Ukrainian and the world culture. Teaching at Demianchuk Rivne International Economic and Humanitarian University, he generously shares with the students his impressive experience in photography – over 60 photo albums. At present, his “My Ukraine” albums are most powerful in terms of their national spirit and artistic talent.

Pylypiuk, winner of the National Taras Shevchenko Prize, is a native of the Pokuttia region. He always longs for his native village of Novoselytsia in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. “I often go home from Lviv by the same way as Vasyl Pylypiuk. My native village of Triitsia is about 10 kilometers away from Pylypiuk’s Novoselytsia,” wrote Ruslana Orenchuk when she was a student at the Department of Journalism at Franko Lviv National University. “On both sides of the road there is beautiful Carpathian nature. But I, unfortunately, do not see those views that Vasyl does, and he immortalizes them on film. Maybe, you need to look, feel, love, and see this world in some special way to discover the splendor of Ukrainian beauty. His native land constantly inspires and invigorates him – he is unique, and both the Pokuttia region and entire Ukraine take pride in him. The whole world is proud of him.”

Everyone who knows Pylypiuk and his family well is convinced that there is inspiration of his loyal and patient wife Hanna (he tenderly called her Nusia) in the maestro’s creative pursuit. In love they brought to the world three beautiful kids – Khrystyna, Yaryna, and Volodymyr, who continues his father’s profession.

Pylypiuk’s photography and social and political activity are aimed at the protection and development of Ukrainian nature, Ukrainian identity in all its regions, and understanding Ukraine as a unified state that longs for harmony, mutual respect, and friendship between people of different nationalities, large and small countries, and the strong and the weak of the earth’s civilization. He is aware of his duty, responsibility, and the fact that people and Ukraine need him.

Pylypiuk is a member of Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists, board member of Ukraine’s National Union of Photographic Artists, and president of the Light and Shadow Publishing Enterprise. He is deeply convinced that the most important and urgent task for Ukrainian artists, journalists, politicians now is to instill in people’s minds state-oriented thinking as a kind of thinking that is national, humane, democratic, and civic. It involves responsibility for the fate of oneself, one’s family, and Ukraine.

Vasyl Lyzanchuk holds a Ph.D. in philology and works as a professor at Franko Lviv National University.

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