10/08/2026
10.08.2019†
Seven Years Without Sveta
Seven years have passed since you left us, Sveta.
Seven years — and yet, in some ways, it still feels like yesterday.
I first met you in Kharkiv, where you were a Prima Ballerina and I was there as a ballet photographer. What began as a professional encounter slowly became something much more special.
Over the years, we photographed together many times — in the Dark Loft Studio, on the streets, in different places, with different partners and dancers. We created images, tried crazy ideas, experimented, and simply followed our creativity wherever it took us.
And we laughed.
A lot.
You were warm, positive, beautiful and always full of good spirits. You had a wonderful energy that made everything around you feel lighter. For me, you were not only an extraordinary dancer — you became a muse.
Together, we created Fine Art ballet images that were much more than photographs to me. They were moments of friendship, creativity, trust and joy. Moments in which we forgot everything else and simply created something beautiful.
And that is what I miss most.
I miss you.
I miss your smile, your energy, your laughter.
And I miss those moments when we stood together, looked at an idea, and somehow turned it into an image.
Seven years later, the photographs are still here. They remain as little pieces of the time we shared — frozen moments in which your movement, your beauty and your spirit will always live on.
But photographs can only preserve an image.
They cannot preserve the laughter.
They cannot preserve the conversations.
They cannot preserve the feeling of having you there.
I miss you, Sveta.
As a friend.
As a dancer.
As my muse.
And simply as the wonderful person you were.
Seven years have passed.
But some people never really leave us.
You are one of them.