Two days ago I saw a post of my friend on Facebook about the fact she’s quitting her current job. There was an attached image, definitely attracting everyone’s attention. It shows a naked woman with a collar around her neck, legs covering part of her face and with an open mouth, standing for an «O» in the word «Erotic». A cover of «Ukrainian Erotic Photography», a new book of our beloved partner, «Osnovy» Publishing, which turned out to be a goodbye gift from her colleagues.
Since the day it was established in 1992, «Osnovy» Publishing creates only the important books. Important for the society, for the development, for the history, for someone you care about — for life. «Ukrainian Erotic Photography», the newest release, is not an exception.
The book aims to create the retrospective of the photography of the body, featuring the works of art of the current Ukrainian photographers. It is the fullest collection of the photography and also is the first edition in English on the topic of Ukrainian eroticism. Although only 1000 copies are released for the first edition, the book gets interest from much more people on live presentations and discussions on the Internet.
21 artists, sharing more than 100 pictures in one book, truly accepted a challenge of being the pioneers in reflecting the role of the body and how free we can express ourselves regarding it. Ukrainian erotic photography was openly born in the nineties of the last century when Ukraine officially got its independence. Before that this genre was pressured by the censorship of USSR, prohibiting both sharing works of art on the topic of eroticism and discussing relevant issues. The book demonstrates works of art in chronological order, allowing the audience to observe the development of erotic photography in the independent Ukraine.
The book includes works by the young generation of photographers (Yaroslav Solop, Sergey Melnichenko, Igor Chekachkov, etc.) and well-known authors who have already become part of the Ukrainian photography history (Mykola Troch, Yevgeny Pavlov, Roman Pyatkovka, Hlib Vysheslavsky).
Maia Iva, one of the artists, whose pictures are featured in the book, explains: «It [Ukrainian erotic photography] is still so inconspicuous that it is necessary to place this embryo under a microscope. It is not yet clear how it will be formed and if it will reach the world level, but it is already trying. And this is the most important thing.»
What is also important is that the book contains minimum text and explanations. Apart from the bios of the authors and the names of the pictures, you will hardly find any description or an explanation of them. That opens another discussion of freedom of expression and interpretation, which is well succeeded in this edition.
Erotic photography will always be a current issue. Issuing editor of the book, Svitlana Libet, explains it as there will always be the new generation of the photographers with their new ideas. In this case, experiences and well-known Kharkiv School of Photography harmonically combine with younger artists.
Finally, erotic photography represents the general mood of the society. Svitlana highlights: «Life is reflected by eroticism, and it is clearly seen from photographs. It seems to us, this is the main value of the project».
CreativeMornings Kyiv is happy to support the enlightenment mission of the project and of «Osnovy» Publishing in general. Please let us know what you think and check the book details via the following link: http://osnovypublishing.com/book/ukrainian-erotic-photography-/
Author: Yevgeniya Gagarkina.
