– “New York Ukraine” plays the guides of the former USSR
Journalist Sébastien Gobert and photographer Niels Ackermann paint a portrait of a small town that is now disappearing from history.
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Novhorodske, Ukraine, 2/13/2020. The city became New York again after a vote.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
It sounds like a joke, but only lies always make sense. So there is indeed a New York somewhere in Ukraine. Like Saint Petersburg in the past, the city regained its name after a popular vote on July 1, 2021. It is therefore not old. Barely six months. The surname was lost in 1951, two years before Stalin’s death In the middle of the cold war. A trace of Americanism then came under ideological provocation …
If New York across the Atlantic is often described as a big apple, then the ex-Soviet would not even be a glitch. Today it is a village of about 10,000 inhabitants. Barely a city, and the population is dwindling. Two things are responsible for this. First, this locality lost its industry, which was once at the forefront of what was done in Donbass. The factories have closed. No more mechanics! Today New York retains only a distant memory of the prosperous city developed at the end of the 19th century by German Mennonites, who came to swell an already predominantly Germanic community. These men had brought the steam mills there. A technological innovation in a Russia that has remained medieval. Suddenly the railway had arrived, which was not common in the time of the Czars either. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina must have aimed just to find a train that could run over her …
A forgotten war in the West
The other reason for New York’s accelerated decline is current politics. We too easily forget that a war, sometimes active and sometimes latent, has existed since 2014 between present-day Russia and Ukraine. No one talks about it anymore. But New York is only four kilometers from what has become a front line. Hence the noises of shells, to which these New Yorkers of a different kind must have become accustomed. Hence the impression of living in a cul-de-sac. Hence, finally, walks that are prohibited, or at least strongly discouraged. We are here on the fringes of something, even if we do not really know what anymore. This war of trenches without trenches marks the spirits, which must however remain active. Living or even surviving in New York Ukraine has become something complicated. Expensive too. By converting the local currency, we arrive at around 200 Swiss francs of salary per month… when we work.
–
Children’s rehearsal for Women’s Day in 2018.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
We could have made a sad and heavy book out of this microcosm lost in a Ukraine that does not interest many people in the West. Boredom enjoys great intellectual prestige. This is definitely not the perspective of Sébastien Gobert and Niels Ackermann. Installed as a journalist in Ukraine since 2011, passionate about “the post-communist space”, the former thus chose to offer us a city guide. “New York Ukraine” is therefore presented as its American counterpart in the Michelin. There are certainly no stars for sights worthy of being visited (to whom did he award them here?), But the reader will learn where to sleep, eat, drink and what to visit. A roundabout way of teaching us geopolitics by talking to people. Everything can be explained from a pizzeria, perfectly incongruous from the rest in such a setting. Oksana Lenko, his owner, tells you everything.
Portfolios
We are no longer in Baedeker’s time, those red guides of German origin who flourished at the end of the 19th century. The image, if possible in color, has long been an integral part of a work encouraging travel. Swiss photographer long established in Ukraine, Niels Ackermann has therefore stuffed the book with portfolios, where he shows us the ordinary of New York as if it were extraordinary. A decrepit building, a kitchen, a trash can are presented to the reader in the manner of local peculiarities. Niels draws our attention to the tiny, the mundane and the poor. It also gives us the portrait of the inhabitants, who try to continue their existence as if everything had remained normal. Nothing spectacular then. Nothing striking. But there have to be places where “Where to go out in New York?” for young people caught up in an aging world. How to stay here when the only possible future seems to lie elsewhere?
–
Children’s sleep.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
Niels Ackermann gives us quiet, discreet, fleeting views. The man is familiar with Russian countries, which have already been the subject of several of his books, including “L’Ange blanc” (2016) and “Looking for Lenine” (2017, already in collaboration with Sébastien Gobert) on unbolted statues of the dictator. His pictures always remain a little pale, as if the territories described had become anemic. No lively tone ever stands out from the gray. We stay with him in the half-tone, as far as we can speak of shade. The man is the opposite of his colleague Nicolas Righetti, who is part of the same Geneva collective Lundi13. As much Nicolas underlines with an insane variegation the setting in scene that the dictatorships born of the ex-USSR make of themselves, as much Niels seems to photograph on tiptoe.
Awarded in 2016
This reserved attitude suits the book very well. I don’t know if you remember. But in 2016, the Romand had won the Swiss Photo Award for the best press image taken the previous year. Niels showed the USSR according to Chernobyl as fair. But a single photo was not enough to speak for itself, as visitors could tell at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich or at Prangins Castle. We needed the series telling a story. Detaching a single part of it, as the jury had done, in my opinion almost made no sense. So it is with little music. She can hardly be heard with a single note. This is not the case today.
–
New York by night.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
I guess you understand that the book is very successful. One last word. If you plan to visit New York Ukraine one of the next few days, everything turns out to be planned. You have blank pages at the end where you can put your personal notes. There are even horizontal lines so your writing doesn’t wander up or down. In the former USSR, we do not appreciate anything that may seem deviant or even deviationist …
Practice
“New York, Ukraine, Guide to an Unexpected City” by Sébastien Gobert and Niels Ackermann, Editions Noir sur blanc, 204 pages.
Born in 1948, Etienne Dumont did studies in Geneva which were of little use to him. Latin, Greek, Law. A failed lawyer, he branched out into journalism. Most often in the cultural sections, he worked from March 1974 to May 2013 at the “Tribune de Genève”, starting by talking about cinema. Then came the fine arts and books. Other than that, as you can see, nothing to report.
– “New York Ukraine” plays the guides of the former USSR
Journalist Sébastien Gobert and photographer Niels Ackermann paint a portrait of a small town that is now disappearing from history.
Novhorodske, Ukraine, 2/13/2020. The city became New York again after a vote.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
It sounds like a joke, but only lies always make sense. So there is indeed a New York somewhere in Ukraine. Like Saint Petersburg in the past, the city regained its name after a popular vote on July 1, 2021. It is therefore not old. Barely six months. The surname was lost in 1951, two years before Stalin’s death In the middle of the cold war. A trace of Americanism then came under ideological provocation …
If New York across the Atlantic is often described as a big apple, then the ex-Soviet would not even be a glitch. Today it is a village of about 10,000 inhabitants. Barely a city, and the population is dwindling. Two things are responsible for this. First, this locality lost its industry, which was once at the forefront of what was done in Donbass. The factories have closed. No more mechanics! Today New York retains only a distant memory of the prosperous city developed at the end of the 19th century by German Mennonites, who came to swell an already predominantly Germanic community. These men had brought the steam mills there. A technological innovation in a Russia that has remained medieval. Suddenly the railway had arrived, which was not common in the time of the Czars either. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina must have aimed just to find a train that could run over her …
A forgotten war in the West
The other reason for New York’s accelerated decline is current politics. We too easily forget that a war, sometimes active and sometimes latent, has existed since 2014 between present-day Russia and Ukraine. No one talks about it anymore. But New York is only four kilometers from what has become a front line. Hence the noises of shells, to which these New Yorkers of a different kind must have become accustomed. Hence the impression of living in a cul-de-sac. Hence, finally, walks that are prohibited, or at least strongly discouraged. We are here on the fringes of something, even if we do not really know what anymore. This war of trenches without trenches marks the spirits, which must however remain active. Living or even surviving in New York Ukraine has become something complicated. Expensive too. By converting the local currency, we arrive at around 200 Swiss francs of salary per month… when we work.
Children’s rehearsal for Women’s Day in 2018.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
We could have made a sad and heavy book out of this microcosm lost in a Ukraine that does not interest many people in the West. Boredom enjoys great intellectual prestige. This is definitely not the perspective of Sébastien Gobert and Niels Ackermann. Installed as a journalist in Ukraine since 2011, passionate about “the post-communist space”, the former thus chose to offer us a city guide. “New York Ukraine” is therefore presented as its American counterpart in the Michelin. There are certainly no stars for sights worthy of being visited (to whom did he award them here?), But the reader will learn where to sleep, eat, drink and what to visit. A roundabout way of teaching us geopolitics by talking to people. Everything can be explained from a pizzeria, perfectly incongruous from the rest in such a setting. Oksana Lenko, his owner, tells you everything.
Portfolios
We are no longer in Baedeker’s time, those red guides of German origin who flourished at the end of the 19th century. The image, if possible in color, has long been an integral part of a work encouraging travel. Swiss photographer long established in Ukraine, Niels Ackermann has therefore stuffed the book with portfolios, where he shows us the ordinary of New York as if it were extraordinary. A decrepit building, a kitchen, a trash can are presented to the reader in the manner of local peculiarities. Niels draws our attention to the tiny, the mundane and the poor. It also gives us the portrait of the inhabitants, who try to continue their existence as if everything had remained normal. Nothing spectacular then. Nothing striking. But there have to be places where “Where to go out in New York?” for young people caught up in an aging world. How to stay here when the only possible future seems to lie elsewhere?
Children’s sleep.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
Niels Ackermann gives us quiet, discreet, fleeting views. The man is familiar with Russian countries, which have already been the subject of several of his books, including “L’Ange blanc” (2016) and “Looking for Lenine” (2017, already in collaboration with Sébastien Gobert) on unbolted statues of the dictator. His pictures always remain a little pale, as if the territories described had become anemic. No lively tone ever stands out from the gray. We stay with him in the half-tone, as far as we can speak of shade. The man is the opposite of his colleague Nicolas Righetti, who is part of the same Geneva collective Lundi13. As much Nicolas underlines with an insane variegation the setting in scene that the dictatorships born of the ex-USSR make of themselves, as much Niels seems to photograph on tiptoe.
Awarded in 2016
This reserved attitude suits the book very well. I don’t know if you remember. But in 2016, the Romand had won the Swiss Photo Award for the best press image taken the previous year. Niels showed the USSR according to Chernobyl as fair. But a single photo was not enough to speak for itself, as visitors could tell at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich or at Prangins Castle. We needed the series telling a story. Detaching a single part of it, as the jury had done, in my opinion almost made no sense. So it is with little music. She can hardly be heard with a single note. This is not the case today.
New York by night.
Niels Ackermann, Lundi13, Photo taken from the book.
I guess you understand that the book is very successful. One last word. If you plan to visit New York Ukraine one of the next few days, everything turns out to be planned. You have blank pages at the end where you can put your personal notes. There are even horizontal lines so your writing doesn’t wander up or down. In the former USSR, we do not appreciate anything that may seem deviant or even deviationist …
Practice
“New York, Ukraine, Guide to an Unexpected City” by Sébastien Gobert and Niels Ackermann, Editions Noir sur blanc, 204 pages.
Born in 1948, Etienne Dumont did studies in Geneva which were of little use to him. Latin, Greek, Law. A failed lawyer, he branched out into journalism. Most often in the cultural sections, he worked from March 1974 to May 2013 at the “Tribune de Genève”, starting by talking about cinema. Then came the fine arts and books. Other than that, as you can see, nothing to report.
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