Hall №3
A picture in dark times
Personal photo exhibition by Oleksandr Savenko
15 December 2022 - 22 February 2023

“Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”

Peter Adams, photographer

How does a viewer perceive a photograph today, what attracts them to it, why are moments fixed in time and space so attractive to the human eye? If we reject the aesthetics of contemplation and the individual’s desire for self-development, then physiology – the senses – will remain. Thus, the psychology of color perception, or the human ability to perceive, identify, and name colors, is a separate field of research for psychologists, sociologists, and even ethnographers.

Our visual receptors perceive the wave energy nature of color. Light of different wavelengths evokes different color sensations. This property of the brain helps us distinguish between the seven known colors and thousands of their shades.

Scientists also note that the perception of color (both emotional and symbolic) is in some way influenced by a person’s ethnicity. After all, before globalization, peoples with their unique cultures were usually formed in relative isolation from each other. In our everyday life, it is almost impossible to avoid color, even today during blackouts, we can observe its “games” with our vision and imaginative perception.

To “capture” light and pure, saturated and dense color with the lens, to present it to the viewer in the best neighborhood of light and shadow, and to add a little history to it – this is what the photographer Oleksandr Savenko, known in the city and far beyond, creates in his photographs. Looking at his photographs, even without an academic understanding of the basics of color and composition, you fall into a state of fascination with the subtle transitions of shades through nuances and halftones.

Today, the photographer does not stop at the heights he has reached, but successfully moves on, looking for new objects, people, and stories. It is worth emphasizing that Savenko’s photographs are full of stories of people, animals, birds, and cities, wherever the artist is. Each photo is a separate fable about a day or a moment that was not lived in vain, captured with the highest quality and Zen-like peace of mind, like a Buddhist monk who understands the passage of time and its relativity.

Another page of Oleksandr Savenko’s life is volunteering. Today, like thousands of conscientious Ukrainians, he helps the frontline in the rear – he carries out necessary humanitarian transportation from abroad whenever necessary.

The story of each photo by Oleksandr begins with the perception of color, which attracts and invites you to travel through the subject of the photo through well-chosen accents that the eye of the beholder will certainly focus on. Giving joy and hope in every frame, the artist’s optimistic photographs help to survive the dark times that will certainly pass.

REFERENCES:

Photographer Oleksandr Savenko was born on December 10, 1964 in Khmelnytskyi. In 1976, the family of the future photographer bought a camera “SMENA”, with which young Sashko first tried his hand at photography in a full cycle – from capturing the moment to developing and presenting the photo. Oleksandr devoted his first photographic works to his native yard – a small family house on Chornovil Street, its inhabitants, landscapes and objects of interest.

Before he went to serve in the army, the semi-professional photographer got a ZENIT-ET camera, which he used to walk around the city with, take to the DOSAAF where he studied, and take pictures again and again.

Then there was the army, which also did not become an obstacle to continuing his favorite work. There, Oleksandr created portraits of his colleagues and other, sometimes funny or instructive, army stories.

After that, he worked at the TEMP plant, and a year and a half later, by chance, Oleksandr Savenko got a job at the Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum. During his three years of work in the KhRAM, Oleksandr was exposed to a unique whirlpool of contemporary Ukrainian art, so he could not stay away from it.

Next came the search for myself in business, the so-called “hard” nineties. So, the photographer returned to photography returned to photography only in 2002. The genre of cityscape, flora and fauna attracted him almost every day almost every day and invited him to capture them in time.

The means of creating photographic art were also changing. Thus, the purchased non-professional camera “CANON” camera that he had bought met the artist’s needs for only two weeks, after which it was returned to the seller. The camera was replaced by a camera was replaced by a LUMIX camera, the functionality of which allowed him to realize the ideas that had long that had been in the works for a long time.

In 2009, he bought his first professional camera, a CANON-5d Mark II, which even exceeded his expectations of putting his artistic photo idea into practice. In the same year, Oleksandr first took part in a photo contest organized by another Khmelnytskyi photographer Serhii Aniskov, where he won second place.

This was followed by a kaleidoscope of exhibitions and awards for his work: “Khmelnytskyi through the lens”, “Mayor’s Prize”, “Christmas Mayor’s Prize, Christmas Khmelnytskyi, Living City, Rock Bug, Republic, “JazzFest, Glushchenkov Fest, a photo book about Khmelnytskyi, and others.

We recommend you visit

Зали №3, 4, 5, Мистецька вітальня
15 August 2026 - 15 November 2026
Even more events