When renowned photographer Yelena Yemchuk returned to Ukraine for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion began, she expected to encounter the pain and loss that defines daily life in a country at war. What she didn't anticipate was discovering an overwhelming abundance of love that would fundamentally reshape her artistic vision and lead to her first exhibition on Ukrainian soil.

"It's this understanding of what life is, the understanding of what love is, the understanding of human relationships, and this appreciation for the moment," Yemchuk explained during a recent interview. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced. I think that's what happens when you're living in a reality where you could die at any moment."

Yemchuk's groundbreaking exhibition "Mnemosyne" opened November 4 at the Naked Room Gallery in downtown Kyiv and will run through November 30. The show represents a significant milestone for the Ukrainian-born artist, marking her first solo exhibition in her native country after decades of international acclaim spanning fine art photography and popular culture.

The exhibition emerged from Yemchuk's August 2024 visit to Ukraine, her first trip back since the war began in February 2022. Originally planned as a personal journey to reconnect with family and friends, the visit transformed into an artistic mission when the Naked Room Gallery invited her to create an exhibition. "Mnemosyne" serves as the second act of a cross-cultural project connecting Kyiv and Marseille, building on the first installation "Ithaca" that opened in France earlier this year. The ambitious project was organized by The Naked Room and Kolektiv Cité Radieuse in partnership with the Institut Français in Ukraine.

Born in Kyiv in 1970, Yemchuk immigrated to the United States with her family during her teenage years, yet Ukraine and its cultural influence have remained central to both her personal identity and artistic work. Throughout her distinguished career, she has moved fluidly between disciplines, creating acclaimed photobooks like "Odesa" and "Gidropark" while also directing music videos for major acts including the Smashing Pumpkins.

Initially, Yemchuk didn't arrive in Ukraine with a specific artistic project in mind. "I just wanted to be here," she recalled. "There was just this incredibly strong female energy that I was drawn in by. I always felt like Ukraine was a woman." As she spent time in the country, her artistic instincts began to resurface. "I just kept falling in love with every tree, with the wind, with the flowers, and the girls. The girls are so beautiful and so multilayered here. So, I said, you know what? Actually, I do want to take some pictures."

The project expanded beyond her recent work to include a comprehensive digitization of negatives from the 1990s and early 2000s, featuring photographs from her earliest trips back to Ukraine after immigrating. This archival process led Yemchuk to broaden the exhibition's scope, incorporating previously unseen images and creating new collages from her extensive collection of historical photographs.

Yemchuk's distinctive photographic style is characterized by surreal, dream-like atmospheres achieved through her masterful use of natural light and color. Rather than relying on controlled studio lighting, she prefers the dynamic, shifting quality of outdoor illumination, where color feels organic and alive rather than artificially manipulated. Her photobook "Malanka," which documents the traditional New Year's folk celebration in Ukraine's southwestern Chernivtsi Oblast, exemplifies this approach. The project captures snow-covered villages as muted, wintry backdrops that create striking contrasts with the vibrant traditional costumes worn by celebrants.

"I like to push the boundaries and go beyond a traditional portrait to make it more about the subject and where they are," Yemchuk explained. Her approach involves careful attention to the interaction between subject, clothing, and environment, allowing her intuition to guide technical choices so that light functions as both a medium and an emotional element.

However, Yemchuk emphasizes that her technical skills with light and color aren't what truly distinguish her photography. Instead, she focuses on the relationships she builds with her subjects and the quiet trust that allows her to capture images that are simultaneously intimate and timeless. "So I try to avoid a 'time frame' in my photos, so to speak. That's important to me. I try to make my photos timeless, so when you're not sure if it could have been taken in the 1970s, 1990s, or today."

The process of selecting subjects remains instinctual rather than calculated for Yemchuk. Walking through crowds of hundreds of people, she may suddenly feel compelled to approach a stranger and request to photograph them. "I'm obsessed with faces, but also the energy that person has. Sometimes, you can just immediately pick up on a person's energy," she noted.

The "Mnemosyne" exhibition represents more than just an artistic homecoming for Yemchuk. It stands as a testament to Ukraine's resilient cultural life during wartime and demonstrates how international artists with Ukrainian roots continue to contribute to the country's cultural landscape despite ongoing conflict. The exhibition runs through November 30, offering visitors an opportunity to experience Yemchuk's unique perspective on Ukrainian identity, memory, and the enduring power of human connection in times of crisis.