The Shepeliuk Archive: Re-examining Ukrainian Industrial Heritage Through Soviet Photojournalism
Kateryna Volochniuk
University of St Andrews22.10.2024, 16:00
Library of Center for Urban History
We invite you to an urban seminar where photography history researcher Kateryna Volochniuk will present her project "The Shepeliuk Archive: Re-examining Ukrainian Industrial Heritage Through Soviet Photojournalism."
As part of her research, she is looking at archival materials from her own family, in particular her grandfather Oleksiі Shepeliuk, who was a photographer and editor of the newspaper of the Lepse Kyiv factory in 1963-1970.
During the seminar, the researcher will present family artifacts, including private photographs, excerpts from the newspaper, and Oleksiі's university thesis "Photo Reportage – Sharp Propaganda Weapon," which was defended in 1968. She will consider how working with the family archive and official materials from the multi-circulation newspaper can trace the infrastructure of the production of cultural meanings that were formed in the factory along with industrial production. She will also analyze Oleksiі's experience as a participant in these processes, which sheds light on photographic practices and the performative environment of production.
Kateryna will also share her experience of working with members of the Shepeliuk family, in particular, she will address their memories of the past, the occupation of Donetsk, during which part of the archive was lost. Their views on the dissonant legacy of the country's industrial and Soviet past, which the archive partially represents, will be discussed separately.
Kateryna Volochniuk
University of St AndrewsArt historian and researcher. She is pursuing her PhD at the University of St. Andrews with the support of the SGSAH and is a research fellow at The New Centre for Research & Practice. Her research focuses on the intersection of photographic history and memory studies. Her work has been published in Korydor, Your Art, ArtsLooker, and Ukraine verstehen. At the Center for Urban History, she is currently on a research residency, digitizing and processing her family archive to contribute a part of it to the Urban Media Archive.
This seminar will be held in a workshop format. Researchers are invited to discuss scholarly projects, research at various stages of development, and completed research that is being prepared for publication.
Participation in the city seminar requires preliminary reading and discussion of the researcher's text. If you would like to join the seminar, please email Maryana Mazurak ([email protected]), and we will send you the materials in advance.
Credits
Cover Image: Lepse factory workers at a demonstration on May 1 // photo by Oleksii Shepeliuk // Shepeliuk family archive.