The exhibition comprises the photographs by the renowned Belorussian photographer Yevgeny Kozyulya from ROSPHOTO’s collection, dating from the 1960s–1990s. The visitors to the event will see important photos from the major series, covering Yevgeny Kozyulya’s oeuvre from the first steps as an amateur photographer to his rise to a professional photojournalist. The featured pictures vividly illustrate the artist’s interests, creative endeavors and reflections on the nature and essence of photography.     

Yevgeny Karpovich Kozyulya was born in Minsk on December 18, 1936. He began studying photography at the age of 14. During World War II his family stayed in the Yaroslavl Region and returned to Minsk in 1944. A photo by Kozyulya was first published in 1957 in Znamya Yunosty (Banner of Youth) newspaper. In the early 1960s Yevgeny did his military service in East Germany, where he used to photograph his comrades-in-arms as well as the places he visited during the trips. It was then when Kozyulya found his true vocation as a photographer. Later he worked at an automotive equipment maintenance plant and at a design bureau. In 1965 Yevgeny became a member of “Minsk” photo club and in 1971 he took part in the first (of the four) Photografika exhibition. Those photo exhibitions were considered the symbol of Byelorussian photography school of the 1970s–1980s and earned it fame throughout the Soviet Union. In the 1970s Yevgeny Kozyulya was elected the President of “Minsk” photo club, while in 1975 he began to work as a photojournalist for Golos Rodiny (Voice of Motherland) newspaper and then collaborated with the Belorussian Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (BelTASS). Kozyulya has participated in over 120 personal and group, national and international exhibitions.                 

Only memories and photographs have remained of what was once a vast Soviet country and from old photographs only we can now learn about our past. Not so much time has passed, it seems, but the subjects, aesthetics, and, more important, the attitude of the photographers and artists towards life around them has changed once and for all. That is why the images in the old photographs that have been preserved by a lucky chance, are not so much a documental record of the epoch that ceased to exist, as the pictures of a mythical country reviving something almost forgotten and even irreversibly lost.       

At a first glance, the majority of Kozyulya’s works seem to be ethnographic-oriented: they depict different places with their own customs and traditions as well as a variety of local characters. However, at a closer look you can see something of much greater importance behind the captured subjects. It is something that is more than just real life reportage – it is a visualization of the artist’s philosophy and world outlook, a careful visual contemplation on the origins of the humanity, on the homeland and Earth, and on the people that inhabit it.    

The subjects of Kozyulya’s works are seemingly simple, but there is a true story behind each of them, witnessed and captured by the artist. Yevgeny Kozyulya has traveled a lot around Belorussia, and each shooting provided him an opportunity to get acquainted with interesting people and to discover new beautiful and unique corners of his native land. It appears that now it is not so important where this or that landscape photo was taken or who was depicted in a picture – an ordinary farmer or a folk crafts artist. What is essential is the spirit of homeland, rendered by the photographer. Kozyulya has managed to capture those elusive images of the fading past, may be not aesthetically perfect, but leaving an imprint on the hearts of the viewers. 

Another group of works by Yevgeny Kozyulya can be referred to aesthetic experiments typical for the fine art photography of the 1960s-1970s. Many Belorussian photographers contributed a lot to the trend during the 1970s presenting their works at the four International Photografika Festivals in Minsk. However, even in those rather experimental pictures we can see Kozyulya’s empathy and particular interest towards the history of his homeland. In his works Kozyulya attempts to restore and revive our common past preserved in the ancestral memory of the nation to which the artist belongs.