03/13/2022
In 1997, Katherine Turczan began showing a series of photographs she had made in Ukraine. “From Where they Came” debuted at the Minneapolis Institute of Art as part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, and featured portraits of children, nuns, and other Ukrainians trying to find their place in a country once more their own.
Turczan, a professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, has recently been sharing these photographs again, on social media. As the title of the series suggests, her family came from Ukraine, mostly during World War II. But other relatives stayed. And now, as Russia invades, she fears for their safety and the future of her homeland, even as she recalls the pride and promise she witnessed in those early years of independence.
Her last visit to Ukraine was just before the Covid pandemic. “It’s been my life’s work, in a way,” she says. “And now I’m terrified.” Some relatives have taken up arms. Others have fled, to Poland and Slovakia. And there are older people in the family, having survived conflict and hardship before, who refuse to leave. “Once again my family is being split,” Turczan says.
Her photographs are now a stark contrast to what the world is seeing of Ukraine. “I’ve been sharing these photographs,” she says, “because I feel that images of tragedy can color people’s idea of what is really there. I want to remind them that there were beautiful people there.”
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Image: Katherine Turczan, "Elena Lykiemetz, Student, Kiev, Ukraine," 1995. Gelatin silver print. The Ellen and Fred Wells Fund 98.41.1
