Viktor Marushchenko
Untitled, 2003
Courtesy of Viktor Marushchenko Archive
About the Works
Without a doubt, Marushchenko is one of the most important photographers of his generation, who succeeded in transmitting his excellence and experience to younger Ukrainian photographers and researching the history of Ukrainian photography within the framework of Viktor Marushchenko’s School of Photography. But most importantly, he built a strong visual canon of reportage and documentary photography in the years right after the fall of the Soviet Union, capturing crucial social changes happening in the society under construction. Selected photos are from two big series he had been working on persistently — Chernobyl and Donbas. Each has a form of a vast collection of images taken during his numerous trips to both locations and focuses on ordinary people in their natural surroundings.
Kateryna Filyuk
About the Artist
Viktor Marushchenko (1946-2020) was born in Novosibirsk, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, to where his parents were evacuated during WWII. In 1951 his family returned to Kyiv, where Viktor graduated from the vocational school of radio electronics and the Institute of Food Industry. As a student, at the beginning of the 1970s, he got engaged in photography, after having bought his first camera — “Praktica”. Since the mid-1970s he worked with theatrical photography in the theatres after Ivan Franko and Lesya Ukrainka; that’s why a significant part of the author’s early archive consists of the shots of directors, actors , composers and musicians. In 1979-1981 he attended the Institute of Journalistic Skills, organised by the photographer Irina Pap. In 1981-1991 worked as a photojournalist for Советская Украина[Soviet Ukraine] and Советская культура [Soviet Culture] medias. Participated in shows since 1983. In 1989 he was invited by a fellow Swiss journalist to Switzerland. Lived there till 1997 and returned to Kyiv afterwards, being invited to join День [Day] newspaper. Worked there for two years. In 2001 his “Chernobyl” (1986) series was presented in the main exposition of the Venice Biennale titled “Plato of Humanity” (curator — Harald Szeeman). In 2010 founded “5.6” journal, dedicated to photography, which is also a platform for the online gallery for Ukrainian art photography. In 2019 was awarded “For contribution to photography” as a part of “UkrContemPhoto” prize from Bird in Flight.
