A look with an angle of 50 years

“These are singers Borys Hmyria and Zoia Haidai; artists Mykhailo Khmelko, Mykola Hlushchenko, Oleksii Shovkunenko, Mykhailo Derehus, Serhii Shyshko, Tetiana Yablonska; sculptors Halyna Kalchenko, Valentyn Znoba, Mykhailo Lysenko,” says the well-known photo artist Leonid Levit, as he shows in his apartment the portraits of outstanding personalities whom he has photographed for the past half a century, “And here I have a whole series of portraits of famous actors, such as Natalia Uzhvii, Arkadii Hashynsky, Mykola Yakovchenko, Olha Kusenko, Dmytro Miliutenko, Valeria Zaklunna; composers Anatolii Kos-Anatolsky, Ihor Shamo, Ivan Karabyts, Kostiantyn Listov, Andrii Shtoharenko; as well as litterateurs, dissidents, and there is a separate series of genre portraits. These are representatives of Ukrainian ‘Silver Age.’”

The master says that he has made over 20,000 portraits for history, with part of them being dedicated to outstanding Ukrainians of the 20th century. As you look through Levit’s works, you have an impression that the history of the country can be studied from them: the cream of the nation is represented here: composers, artists, poets: Ivan Drach, Ivan Kavaleridze, Vitalii Korotych, Heorhii Maiboroda, Raisa Nedashkivska, Maria Prymachenko, Ada Rohovtseva, Yevhen Stankovych, Sviatoslav Rikhter, Dmytro Shostakovych, Tetiana Yablonska, Heorhii Yakutovych, and many others. A separate part of the collection, which the photographer has presented to the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, is made up by portraits of workers of Ukrainian science and culture. And at the order of the Nationwide Society of Political Prisoners and Repressed, Leonid Levit made photos of Mykhailo Horyn, Ivan Dziuba, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Yevhen Proniuk, Viacheslav Chornovil, and other knights of conscience.

When you look at these photos, you forget that this is photography. Every photo shows the personality with his or her pain, fears, emotions, hopes, and dreams. The author knows perfectly the play of light and shadow, image and background. And all of his portraits are executed in black-and-white style.

The photo artist admits that he never created any images artificially – that he encourages the person he is photographing to reveal himself or herself and appear what s/he is like in life. That is namely the reason why fellow photographers and experts call Levit a master of staged psychological photo portrait.

The Day discussed with Leonid LEVIT how the portrait of Ukrainian has changed over the past 50 years.

“During the recent decades the political life has leveled many things,” the photographer says, “The image of a Ukrainian has changed from more relaxed and patriarchal one, which could be met not only in cities, but villages as well, to a person who is active in politics and life. Of course, this has been reflected in the portraits.

“My life and professional activity coincided with the period of active development of Ukrainian culture. I call this period, 1960-2010, the Ukrainian ‘Silver Age.’ Namely in this period I observed a splash of Ukrainian culture. I managed to make a number of important portraits in which I tried to show a whole historical time.”

Why did you decide to make photos of outstanding Ukrainian culture figures?

“I was born in Moscow and lived there before the war. I got to Ukraine later, after the war, and its rich culture turned my mind upside down. Moscow has a strong Tatar-Mongol branch. I felt that especially sharply, when I started to work in Ukraine – this is a totally different country with totally different people. So, when I got an opportunity to serve Ukraine, I decided to dedicate my path to the assertion of the spirituality of culture and showing its image to the world. Unfortunately, in Russia you can still hear the opinion that Ukrainians are an inferior nation. This is absolute nonsense, so-called great-Muscovian chauvinism. I decided to show the best things that are taking place in Ukraine in my lifetime. And a lot was taking place. Culture was at the highest point of its development.

“Generally, modern culture is reducing and fragmenting everything. People who listen to symphonic music make less than one percent compared to those who go to stadiums. Today the mass culture has swallowed up almost everything, and even serious and influential artists orient at masses. We are living in the time of a complete decay of culture, development of vulgarity. Previously culture demanded a serious training, and the aesthetic level was kept high by the profile educational institutions. And today universities do not give any knowledge at all. Therefore the ‘culture hunger’ is felt especially sharply. It will be repeated that everything is seized by the mass culture, which does not require any understanding, depth, experience, or generalizations. In the 1960s-1970s the phrase ‘Ukrainian culture figure’ meant much more. People with a biography achieved the right to create Ukrainian culture with their life. And today people without biographies are ruining it.”

How was it like to work with people who won the status of classics in their lifetime?

“The higher the cultural level of the person, the less s/he behaves like a star. It was wonderful to work with the majority of the people whom I managed to shoot. For example, Maria Prymachenko – she is a genius artist. The suffering she experienced left on her face a great imprint of humanist depth. Before making the famous portrait of the artist, I had to talk to her. I asked how she was managing her time, where she found time to paint, and asked her to tell about her family. And at some point of time when she had a lyrical mood, I made a photo of her.”

What makes a photo successful?

“Success of a chamber portrait depends on two factors: the personality who is being photographed and the master who’s holding a camera. The sum of psychology and culture level of these two people produces result on the portrait. The master must be educated well enough to penetrate in the soul of people of various professions and social categories. Actually, this is the reason why the number of portraitists is so small these days. For this you need years of observations and living with people. My biography is very demonstrative in terms of this. I’ve never studied, but I have read a lot. I can say that my teachers are classical literature and life experience. I have always been near to the plant workers. I am a turner by profession, which is why I have had an opportunity to observe the behavior of various people in various situations. This helped me to develop a certain look, when even from appearance I try to understand the psychology of the person who’s standing in front of me.”

Why did you choose to work in black-and-white photography?

“I love black-and-white range of colors, it is noble. Colored works rarely meet the initial idea. And in my time colored photography was also quite unstable, because the range of colors was changing all the time, which influenced the composition of the work. I am sure that the artist must leave some things unsaid, appeal to the active imagination of the audience, and make it finish the images in its imagination. Namely the black-and-white range of colors enables one to make all kinds of interpretations.

“If we return to the beginning of our conversation about how the psychological portrait of a Ukrainian has changed over time, you know, modern Ukrainian has become more active and dynamic, s/he has a deeper look. Now life conditions make Ukrainians be active. What was earlier, this general human restraint, is no more typical of us. Today the number of people who are smiling is increasing in the streets, in spite of the situation in the country and economic hardships, you can feel an active flow of thoughts in the eyes of the passersby.”