Turczan Reflects on Her Photographs of Ukraine

In 1997, faculty member Katherine Turczan began showing a series of photographs she had made in Ukraine. From Where they Came debuted at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) as part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, and featured portraits of children, nuns, and other Ukrainians trying to find their place in a country once more their own.

Since 1991, Turczan has returned to Ukraine on a nearly annual basis. Through her travels, she has seen the arrest of Mikhail Gorbachev (and was in the country with family when it happened), the fall of the Soviet Union, and the transition the country took as it gained independence. There were some very severe times,” she says. “But what I found were people grateful for the fall of the Soviet Union and the start of a new democracy.”

Turczan has not returned to the Ukraine since before the Covid pandemic. Her photographs are now a stark contrast to what the world is seeing of Ukraine. “I’ve been sharing these photographs,” she says, “because I feel that images of tragedy can color people’s idea of what is really there. I want to remind them that there were beautiful people there.”

Learn More

• "As Russia invades, Katherine Turczan reflects on her photographs of Ukraine"
  (new.artsmia.org—March 10, 2022)