Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com


A   S C R A P B O O K   O F   S O L U T I O N S   F O R   T H E   P H O T O G R A P H E R

Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.

Matinee: 'Unbroken: Ukraine's Ballerinas' Share This on LinkedIn   Tweet This   Forward This

15 October 2022

Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?

So we're pleased to present the 470th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Unbroken: Ukraine's Ballerinas.

This 9:12 video by Charles Gay describes a photographic project by the ballerina and photographer Svetlana Onipko and the photographer Felipe Jácome. They had met some time ago at a photoshoot focused on ballet in Kyiv.

That was when Jácome became aware that Onipko was a photographer as well as a ballerina. "Since then we connected over our love for photography," he says.

"I love to do photography because I love people," she says. "I feel connections to them. And I don't feel like I'm alone in this world."

But with the onset of the war, Onipko evacuated to Warsaw.

As a dancer for the Ukrainian National Ballet, she was welcomed to Poland by its national ballet and given a place to live and to practice.

It wasn't long before Jácome called her to suggest a project to help Ukraine. And Onipko was all for it.

The photographers transfer images of Ukrainian ballerinas displaced by the conflict onto a canvas of bullet casings. "The strength, determination, and beauty of the dancers is juxtaposed with the senseless violence, brutality, and destruction inflicted by the bullets," they note.

Profits generated from the sale of the photographs of the Unbroken project will be donated for relief and recovery efforts in Ukraine.

"This project has a soul," Jácome says. And a heart, too.


BackBack to Photo Corners