Photos as a Cultural Code of the Odesa Region

Abstract

In Ukraine, the transition to visualization is observed in the expansion of the range, change of functions, simplification of production and demonstration of the traditional photo image. Personal and family photographs play an important role in cultural memory, and working with photographs offers a particularly productive way to understand social and cultural aspects of memory. In the article proposed, I research the variability of the functions of photography in polyethnic and multicultural region of Southern Ukraine, taking as the main example the city of Odesa and the Odesa region. I seek to reproduce and describe the historical and cultural dynamics of the development of photographic practices in Odesa from art to craft, and eventually to everyday practice from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. I aim to reveal the ethno-cultural expressiveness of photographic practices among the multi-ethnic population of Odesa, to point out general and specific features, to investigate local differences of ethnographic groups, structures and everyday practices, features of material and spiritual culture, socio-cultural norms. During 2012-2019 independently or taking part in complex ethnographic expeditions of I. I. Mechnikov Odesa National University, I have conducted more than 150 general, 53 focused interviews and 68 semi-formalized interviews in 51 towns and villages of Odesa region, including Odesa, Balta, Bilyaivka, Podils’k, Chornomors’k and Izmail.