Highland Inhabitants of the Ukrainian Carpathians

2023–2026

When I travelled through the Carpathians, my attention was always drawn to the highland dwellers of Bukovynka, Perenyz, Chorna Tysa… Some hamlets sit as high as 1,100 metres. People there live in very harsh conditions! In the mountains winter rages for half the year. What is more, there are no shops, no schools, no kindergartens. Every day they overcome the hardships of everyday labour and depend only on their own health and strength of spirit. And so, out of respect for these people who know how to survive within nature, came the idea of shooting the series «Highland Inhabitants of the Ukrainian Carpathians».

While photographing them I realised that I understand their advantages better than they do themselves. Our planet is going through great change. It is polluted. Access to good food and water keeps shrinking. We are becoming vulnerable to cataclysms and catastrophes. Humanity is in danger. We cannot navigate space the way these people can. We cannot obtain food or water. We are dependent. But they have foresight. Because in truth, the great art is to live wisely with nature and to survive from nature, passing these skills on to one’s children.

For the most part I talked with people who cannot imagine themselves outside their way of life. But most of them lack a deep awareness that they are walking the right path. Parents do not fully explain to their children where their wealth lies, what the true meaning of existence is. And so the trend is that people are leaving these areas. The young go to study in the cities, where modern tinsel swallows their identity and turns them away from what is true. It is no longer fashionable to be a shepherd or a hunter. Not fashionable to gather bilberries and mushrooms. Rubber boots are out of fashion. 4G enslaves even the highest mountain-born natural mind at ultra speed. It is sad to realise, but this way of life is dying. And before it disappears entirely, at least a little of the story of the Carpathian highlanders must be preserved.

Photographs of the series