'Ukraine's Euromaidan One Year Later: The Celebration Where People Wept and Funereal Music...

When this photo was taken a week and a bit ago, it had been a year since

the bulk of Ukraine celebrated the 100 fighters who died overthrowing an

elected President at 'Freedom Square' known as Maidan and dubbed by the

press as "EuroMaidan'. Now, a year later, a 'celebration' of sorts was held

at the same spot, in Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine's Maidan, now cleared of

protesters. An orchestra and chorale played Requiem Music, including I think

Mozart's Requiem, and some openly wept, as the nation, now torn by civil

war in farthest East and part of the South adjacent to Russia, has claimed

over 5,000 soldier and civilian lives. Your ratings, critiques and observations

are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically, or wish to

make a remark, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your photographic knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Observe this very solemn proceeding as I did. john

Night time, low overcast and drizzle, including rain on the lens which could not be wiped away.  Loud, funeral music played live by an orchestra but amplified so all of the heart of Kyiv might think it was just next door or just a bit down the street, when in actuality in some cases it was over a kilometer away . . . sad, sad . . . sad classical music called 'Requiem' . . . music for full orchestra and chorale that was anything but a celebration, instead more a mourning for the dead and injured in the intervening year, the torn lives, the million displaced Ukrainian citizens (some of whom went to Russia/others of whom went to other parts of Ukraine or even other countries), and the wounded, some with limbs blown off . . . now beginning to be seen in the street in their camouflage uniforms occasionally, showing their injured limbs and asking for some money . . . not many, but there will be more.

A mourning for a country, a part of which has been ripped from itself by fighting - the first time since World War II, according to many who keep tallies of such things except possibly a several year ago Georgia (country) incursion.

 A 'cease fire' demanded by Western governments was more celebrated by the breach than the actuality, but now, with a Russian Separatist victory over a key town with rail hub and highway crossroad coming far after the Cease Fire was supposed to take hold, the cease fire is taking hold . . . a little bit, though a journalist was killed by an artillery shell a few days ago, and fighting continues . . . though much more sporadically.  

Note:  The mourning was not just for the people, but for a nation torn and rendered, in part, as seen by these Kyiv attendees, by 'outside forces' -- but seen by the opposing side these 'attendees' are seen and portrayed as 'Nazis' trying to bring the West into a fundamentally Eastern and Russian-leaning country --- Ukraine.  

Note:  In Kyiv, two languages are spoken roughly equally: Russian and Ukrainian.  

(I take no sides in particular, except against war.  I've lived in both Russia and Ukraine, and I abhor war and those who instigate it.  I have opinions, which I keep to myself, as I am a foreigner and my opinions -- and they are mixed -- have no place and are of no consequence in this troubled country).

john

John (Crosley)

ISO 6400.  Available light (no flash; it would be disrespectful).  12 mm f 4.0, through drizzle.  Hand held.  Nikon D3200, Nikkor 12~24 f 4 lens.  In short very difficult photo conditions, available light or any other kind.

jc

We have followed the sad development in Ukraine since it started. Everywhere people with intentions to grab power and control create so much misery for our fellow human beings. It is discouraging that we never seem to learn from the mistakes in the past.

There is hope sometimes. We just watched a documentary on a school in Kibera, Kenya. The two people running it are exceptional, in the league of Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King.......people who make a difference with their personal involvement.

the picture is a good representation of the struggle, considering the conditions under which you took the shot.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look, read so much that I wrote, and then comment so appropriately.

I'll try to keep quiet, as I think I've said enough already.

Thanks and my best wishes to you both.

(This project started out ten years ago when I saw Ukraine as the 'fulcrum' between West and the East, and since the people were photographer friendly, and since I had no ideological axe to grind, the nation has tolerated me, though I'm an American who has lived in Russia (as well as numerous other countries, at least for short times.)

(I like the Ukraine people a lot, and they seem to like me; I don't have any agenda at all, other than taking good, telling photos, and to document (what now is a fast changing) life in (among other places) Ukraine, now, and the actors and the stage on which this world historical drama is being played, only now with real blood being spilled.

(I seem to have a way about being in the 'center' of things since I was in Civil Rights, campus riots, the Viet Nam war, and so forth, all my life.  

(I go somewhere, it heats up, and then I'm in the center of the storm.  Odd; the story of my life is the story of my times, and mostly I didn't have to chase the story at all; it just occurred around me, from the time my university (Columbia) dissolved around me in riots and a student occupation, from when I was shot in a race incident, to being caught in a race riot, to being in Viet Nam as a civilian photographer (I jumped an ammo ship to stay, with 'permission'), the civil rights movement (my first published photo was of the Martin Luther King assassination reaction, NY Times, after I'd owned a camera a few short weeks, and so forth.)

It just seemed that wherever I went with a camera, I had a knack for 'finding photo worthy captures others passed by or stepped across the street or around the block to avoid.

I guess I don't avoid trouble when I'm carrying a camera; otherwise I'm a real coward.

I'm a Yuppie who dropped out, and have lived a sort of more upscale and educated 'Forrest Gump' sort of life.

For the last ten years, once again, I've been documenting that life.  Much of it went unrecorded, as I wasn't taking photos at all except a few, sporadically, every decade or so.

Now between 1oo and 200 million views (mostly clicked views) show me that others find my work interesting.

Thanks for kind, perceptive words.  Without an audience, such as yourselves, there'd be little point in this endeavour.  

john

John (Crosley)

Hi John,

Sounds like a movie or at least a book in that story!  Rest assured we are following your pics. Thanks for the back story- fascinating. Stay safe!

G+V