A French photographer of Ukrainian origin
Last week, Youry Bilak joined me at Artishok for lunch. He is the photographer behind the exhibition currently being held at the Ivan Honchar folk culture museum. The exhibition, simply titled “Ukrainians,” showcases 70 photographs portraying the everyday lives and culture of Ukrainians across the country. According to Youry, his philosophy is simple: “I don’t want to just take pictures, I want people to ‘give’ me these pictures.”
Photography is actually just one of Youry’s many artistic talents and pursuits. Over the years, Youry has worked in almost every field of performance art, including dancing, singing, acting, and even miming – which he performed on the streets of Paris at one point years ago.
Coming from a traditional Ukrainian family but growing up in France, Youry’s parents enrolled him in Ukrainian dance lessons at an early age. His parents were both from Bukovyna, a village in Vinnytsya Region, in central-western Ukraine, and immigrated to France before he was born in 1961. He said he actually didn’t like the lessons when he was young, and his interest in the arts didn’t set in until later in life.
He was introduced to photography as a young child through his father, who was an avid amateur photographer. “That was part of my culture at home, to see my father walking around with a camera,” he explained.
Surprisingly, Youry started a career as a dental technician when he was 17. His career was short-lived, however, and Youry soon started thinking about pursuing other interests. He bought his first camera that same year.
He contemplated expanding his dance studies beyond Ukrainian dances. “I wanted to upgrade my level, and started taking ballet and modern jazz dance,” Youry said. In 1986 Youry quit his dental technician job and joined a European troupe performing an adapted version of the hit Broadway play “Cabaret” to European audiences.
He even took pictures surreptitiously during his onstage performances. “I would hide my camera on stage and take pictures,” he laughs. He played several characters in the play, including a marine, a cabaret client, and a transvestite, and his performances showcased his singing, acting, and dancing talents. By the end of the play’s three-year run, Youry had performed in over 500 shows. The play won three awards and tickets to the shows were often sold out.
Youry started coming to Ukraine frequently three years ago to take photographs for his current exhibition. His work was commissioned by the French embassy in Ukraine, to be shown as part of the French Spring festival, a month-long celebration of French culture and arts, which took place the entire month of April in six cities throughout Ukraine. “Ukrainians” premiered in Lviv before coming to Kyiv.
The project took Youry all over Ukraine – from the coal mines of Novovolynsk and Chervonohrad in western Ukraine to those in the Donetsk coal basin, to the seaports and shipyards of Odessa and Mykolayiv in the south, all the way to Ukraine’s Transcarpathian border, the homeland of diverse Lemko, Hutstul and Boyko folk cultures.
He describes his work as a type of ethnographic study, in which he immerses himself in the daily lives of his subjects – even living at their homes – while photographing them.
“I try to understand why they live the way they do,” he explained. During these stays, he also captures the sounds and voices of his subjects by keeping a recorder running. These sounds make up the soundtrack to Youry’s current exhibition.
The starting point for Youry’s current photography collection was the photographs of coal miners in eastern Ukraine he started taking three years ago. He lived with the miners for a week while photographing their lives. He even descended mine shafts with them for photo shoots.
“I was a member of the mine brigade,” Youry told me, adding, “their office is ugly.” To my question about whether the experience was scary, Youry gave me an unequivocal rejoinder: “Yes!”
Listening to Youry’s account of his experiences with the miners, his sense of admiration for them was clear, but the stressfulness of it obviously affected him as well. “It was very exciting to get in, and very exciting to get out,” Youry said.
Although the experience wasn’t completely new to Youry, as one of his old hobbies was spelunking: creeping through caves wearing a headlight. He said he could sometimes hear pieces of the cave’s ceiling falling from above.
Youry was very moved by the miners’ daily lives, and the strength and courage they exhibited while toiling in extreme conditions everyday. “For me, these men aren’t workers, they’re heroes,” Youry said. He described to me what mine work is like. The mines are usually less than 40 inches high, which forces the miners to crouch in a half-sitting, half-lying position throughout their six-hour daily shifts. “Each time the lift goes down, you here silence, and when it goes back up, they speak. There is definitely a lot of stress,” he said.
