Vitebsk 2023

June 21, 2023

‘The Lightness of Being’
21 June — 9 July 2023.
The VIII International Festival of Photography “FotoKrok” named after Sigismund Yurkovsky
presents a 48 black-and-white photographs by Pavel Hanchar.
The exhibition will be shown at the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local History.
Free entrance 11:00-19:00
36, Lenin Str., Town Hall, Vitebsk, Belarus
Curated by Misha Maslennikov

The Lightness of Being

The exhibition “The Lightness of Being” is a corpus of photographs by the Belarusian documentary photographer Pavieł Hancˇar and the very first retrospective exposition of the author. This declared “lightness”, for an erudite viewer, can have at least 2-3 associations with its meanings. However, we are talking directly on photography, its technical performance, aesthetic properties and the author’s approach to the topic covered. And here everything is “easy and simple” with Pavel, starting with the choice of the Leica M10 Monochrom camera and ending with his sincere love and attitude towards the subject. Probably, this is characteristic of the nature of the photographer himself, where simplicity and lightness captivate with their characteristics of the airiness of the scenes and the author’s skill.

Misha Maslennikov

The Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local History

Exhibition opening: 21 June — 9 July

The VIII International Photo Festival “PhotoKrok” together with the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local History present the exhibition of the Belarusian documentary photographer Pavel Hanchar, which is called “The Lightness of Being”. Forty-eight black-and-white works will be presented to your attention, in which you will find the whole range of light feelings: falling in love and quiet sadness, playfulness and thoughtfulness, joy in dancing and pleasant exhaustion.

Pavel Hanchar’s creative credo is close to the school of humanist photography. He looks for inspiration in the everyday, his heroes are ordinary people, revealed at a certain “decisive moment”, which makes each photograph a small story. Pavel is fascinated by Belarusian traditional culture and often creates his atmospheric photos during traditional celebrations and festivals. He believes that the best shots are gifts of fate, and the photographer must be worthy of such a gift.