Yaroslav Solop (b. 1979) is a Ukrainian artist, curator, photographer and researcher. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of BOOKSHA publishing. Solop is the author of the idea, editor-in-chief of the UPHA Made in Ukraine book project — an anthology of modern Ukrainian photography (BOOKSHA, 2021). He is the co-founder and curator of art projects at Ōagency Creative Studio. Initiator and researcher of the archive of modern photographic works for the Ukrainian Institute of Photography. In his artistic practice, Solop explores modern myth-making processes, habits, values and prejudices imposed by society. In addition to photography, he works with collage, installation, sculpture and graphics.
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selected projects:
Eternal Return. 2011-2014
The series was created in Crimea in 2011 and consists of more than 100 photographs: they depict winter landscapes, Sevastopol and small towns near the sea. Immediately after the annexation of the peninsula by Russia, I once again carefully reviewed the negatives and painted them.
Such a method of post-intervention in the image may seem quite formal, but in 2014, and even now, the project is a kind of photographic archive which captures my emotional experiences during the occupation of Crimea. The photos took on a new context and ceased to be associated with a carefree holiday, when my friends and I spent hours in deserted places, exploring the sky and rocks, quoting Homer’s Odyssey, picking small pebbles with our hands, sniffing salt air, watching the Black Sea mood and sunsets.