The Most Ridiculous Show on Earth

Above, top to bottom: Young circus fans watch as a the trapeze artist balances atop a metal pole at the "Circ" in Lviv, Ukraine on February 27th, 2009; these pictures pretty much speak for themselves. I thought I might be saddened by dancing bears, but it was hilarious; an interesting cultural difference, these are the gymnasts who held aloft metal poles while the girl on the right performed on them. The gentleman on the far left is wearing a mock Yamaka, and they played yiddish-sounding music when he climbed up one of the poles, clearly meant to be Jew of the act, and thus the Ukrainian scapegoat. The other two men are dressed like Russian sailors, with the implication that all three are clowns and womanizers; the Poodle cha-cha.

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Ukrainian circus, commonly mistaken for the Ukrainian Parliament. The debacle was held inside a circular concrete structure that looked like the MetroDome, sans football and beer. The only public entertainment events I've attended so far have been operas, dances, and orchestras, which are dirt cheap and full of culture.

But then I saw the posters for the Ukrainian Circus, beckoning with dancing bears in clown costumes and a line of cha-cha-ing poodles waving their paws. It was catnip. I had to go.

I've always wanted kids and I have a special love for big families since my mother comes from a family of nine. But when I walked into a circus arena filled with 2000 screaming children, I realized I was not quite ready for the responsibility of cleaning a nacho-cheese covered toddler eating cotton candy. At least, I was not ready for the class of seven year olds that kept climbing over my knees during the performance.

The Ukrainian circus is a bit like real life in Ukraine, but with clown costumes and gymnastics.

It was mostly a normal circus, but I don't ever remember bears being a big part of Barnum & Bailey's routine. As I sat near the top row of circus, peering through my 200mm lens at the floor below, I was convinced the bear running out on stage on two legs and doing summersaults was a guy in a bear suit.

Almost certainly a bear from the Carpathians or from Russia, these brown bears were big, but closer to six feet when standing on their hind legs. The rode motorcycles, juggled fire on their feet while riding on the back of an All Terrain Vehicle, danced and walked a high beam.

Other crowd favorites were the cat that suicide-jumped off a 30-foot pole into a blanket, the clown that threw a fake rat into the audience and almost caused a stampede, mullet-sporting trapeze artists, and a muscle-man/gymnast who did an interpretive ballet version of the Iron Cross to the Eurythmics. Bravo.

One act I didn't get to see that day was Brett's personal favorite: the parachuting puppies. That's right, miniature "Benji" dogs climb a series of ladders to the top of the arena, and then run and jump off a ramp, seeming to fall some 200 feet to their death until a parachute opens. I laughed so hard I cried, but I would love to photograph it.

The rumors are true: things are bad

Above: Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times in Kyiv, Ukraine.

I planned on the Decisive Moment, the photo story, light or something equally harmless as our assignment for my Beginning Photojournalism course at Ukrainian Catholic University. As with all classes in Ukraine, word-of-mouth is the best advertising, and students don't really show up till the third week. But today, the assignment was a surprise: in five pictures, explain the banking crisis of Ukraine.

I've received two emails thus far from friends asking about this article from the New York Times concerning the economic crisis in Ukraine. For those that don't know, Ukraine had the fastest depreciating currency in the world in 2008 next to Iceland, whose entire banking system collapsed. People want to know: is this just hype, or is Ukraine really this bad?

In short, it's true. It's worse than you think. I told my students today that I saw the perfect picture standing on the street the other day, looking at one of the money exchange signs. A woman in her 50s was staring at the exchange rates for the Ukrainian Hryvnia, US Dollar and the Euro, shook her head, and gave an exasperated sigh, her frozen rosy cheeks puffed out.

That's how everybody feels here. I hate to say it, but what you read is true. Ukraine is really in a crisis, far worse than Americans can imagine.

Although I can't confirm the speculations, several people I have spoken with expect riots within the next 2 months. People are very frustrated by the fall of the currency and feel powerless, and they are getting restless. My roommate has been approached by several coworkers asking to buy American Dollars off of him. They aren't looking to con anyone, they just want their hard-earned salary to be worth something by 2010.

Why we don't vote for communists

Before this historic election in America(which I covered in Lviv, photos to come with slideshow), I was out wandering around, taking photos on a sunny afternoon like I always do. Sometimes I forget that I'm living in a post-soviet bloc country that has been devastated by communism. Then I look out my window at the identical, concrete, human-filing cabinet across the road and I realize "hey! There's no creative expression in a totalitarian society, in fact, there's no expression/dissent/freedom at all! Yippee!"

This is why we don't vote for communists. I'm not making a political comment on the American election, please don't misinterpret me. Instead, you should know that this week I have never been prouder to be an American than these past few days. Words cannot describe what I've seen here, how devastated this country is because of secular communism, and how cynical the people are about change, politics and any sort of freedom in their lives. 

As Brett picked up a book on the history of Lviv a student had gifted me, he flipped open to the page from 1992, shortly after the Iron Curtain fell and Ukraine won its independence.

"Hey, look at this," he said. "This is the first store opened in Lviv in 1992."

Let me say that again. The first store was opened in 1992. Before this time, there was nothing to buy. Nothing. You waited in line everyday to collect one loaf of bread, one piece of meat and one piece of cheese to feed your entire family. That was it. People went nuts here when the hot dog vendor was introduced. The first signs of capitalism were people sitting on the sidewalk with an umbrella, a few thermos' full of lemonade and coffee, and some cheap hot dogs served on a slice of bread. It was like Beanie Babies and Tickle-Me Elmo walked into a preschool and handed out Skittles. People went nuts, they had never experienced free enterprise before.

A colleague described how his father was a miner, a well-paid position in the Soviet Union. he made a very good wage, but realized that there was nothing he could use the money for, nothing at all. There was nothing to buy, there were no stores for groceries, clothes, electronics, etc. Everyone had the same thing, everything was provided by the government. He put all his money in Soviet banks, and when the Union dissolved, so did his bank account and he lost everything.

It shows in the city. Looking at the pictures above, you can see a few examples of the dilapidated structures of the city. Lviv is the most western city in Ukraine, in fact many Ukrainians tour here because they literally think it is Europe. Yet, the sidewalks are falling apart, completely broken with bits of concrete strewn about. Everyday, the little old ladies have to navigate stairs like the ones above, stairs that haven't been repaired in 50 years and are practically wheelchair ramps now because they've disintegrated. There are abandoned buildings, like the one above, that were built by the soviets, never developed, and left to become ghosts of a failed regime lurking in the past.

The infrastructure is nonexistent here, evidenced by the lack of proper roads, transportation, healthcare, fire and police safety and numerous other deficiencies. Yet, Ukraine has been free for 16 years. But it will live with the scars of communism for lifetimes to come. 

Turka, foothills of the Carpathian Mountains

Above: Star trail exposures taken on top of Mount Baldy in Turka, Ukraine on the Polish border. To shoot this, you'll need: 1. a reliable tripod, 2. a camera that can expose for at least 30 seconds, 3. a wide angle lens, 4. a cable release cord or remote, 5. a cigar, maybe a beer, warm clothes and free time. 

I exposed these using my D300's 'Multiple Exposure' option, allowing me to take up to 10 exposures at 30 seconds each and then combining them in-camera to make a single 5 minute exposure. Quite efficient. If your camera can also shoot at intervals, it will save you the trouble of having to press the shutter each time, which can shake the camera and ruin the image(I had several failures). If you have a cable release, this will solve all of your problems. I didn't, so I used the 'shutter delay' option, which delays the shutter by a second after the mirror is raised in order to reduce shake. This also let me press the shutter release each time without shaking the camera. This is surprisingly easy to do once you get the hang of it, like fireworks photography. Dress warm.
I swear I'm sitting in someone else's spit, but in the freezing wind on top of this mountain, I don't really care. Puffing my cuban, I force my icy hand through 7 layers of clothing and light a match inside the tupperware container I use to transport cigars. Yura takes his first-ever puff of a cigar, and in the near pitch-blackness of the Ukrainian night, over the howl of inhumanely icy wind, I swear I can hear him smile.

"Dobry," he say, his face glowing orange with each puff. 

Hearing my camera click as the shutter ends another time exposure, I roll back and press the shutter release. I'm trying to nail the star trails on my left, but the men are getting restless in this terrible cold. 

"We go sleep now?" Yura suggests for the fifth time. Yura, a diminutive(nickname) form of Yuri(Ukrainian for "George"), came grappling up the mountain with a machete he must have borrowed from Rambo(he actually made it himself, which made me even more afraid of him), full camouflage, two sleeping bags, pork fat and potatoes in a tiny sack. Brett and I, being Americans, weren't going to put up with any of this 'amateur' B.S. No, no. 

In addition to my 20 pounds of camera gear(body, 2 lenses, flash, video camera, tripod and tripod head), we managed to pack enough clothing for a week, a pot, food for 4 days(we stayed for 1 night in the woods), a frisbee, sleeping bag, hand sanitizer and three cuban cigars. I can hear my scoutmaster saying "be prepared," and "laugh and scratch," his unique term for "goofing around." Laughin' and scratchin' was exactly what we did around the fire when Yura's brother Sasha arrived. 

Sasha brought a bottle of wine and promptly announced he was going to boil its contents. OK, Sasha, I just digested half a pound of pork fat. You do what you want. 

They cook the wine with cinnamon and squeeze an orange into the pot. The spicy, aromatic liquid that came rushing over my tongue a moment later like a pack of wolves redefined my reasons for coming to Ukraine. It was possibly one of the most thrilling things I have ever tasted, best described as a liquid form of Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing, cranberries and jello mixed with real eggnog on a Christmas morning.

Insides burning from the hot wine, I curl up in a wheel rut and flatten out on the ground to hide from the wind. I'm surprisingly warm, and although Sasha reiterated that he'd prefer we come down the mountain and stay another night in their house, we stubbornly stick to our mountain defenses. The tent we have is only for two people, and we learned later that night why they don't usually squeeze 3 people into a two-man tent. I never thought spooning could be considered a survival method. 

Taking full advantage of the crystal clear, moonless night on top of a mountain, I reach over to the camera and click the shutter again. I pray the wind won't shake the camera, and roll into a ball. Sure is cold. 

Yushchenko dissolves parliament, calls for reelection: What to do when the country you're living in falls apart

Above: A Ukrainian man waits to cross the street near my apartment in L'viv, Ukraine on October 6th, 2008. The yellow bus approaching, called a Mashrutka, are a popular means of transportation in a city that doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with the surge in vehicles per capita in the last decade. 

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved the legislature on Wednesday and has called for new parliamentary elections on December 7th. The Ukrainian stock market has fallen 30 percent  and the Ukrainian Hryvna has fallen 20 percent as the economy continues to falter. The decline of the hryvna has outpaced even the devalued American dollar, the exchange rising from approximately 4.80 UA to 5.80 UA to $1 USD in less than 2 weeks. 

In short, the economy here is doing worse than the US economy, the currency is devalued, the government destabilized and everyone is really, really ticked off. Ukrainian sentiment has generally been to fix things as fast as possible in a country trying to stave off the political influence of the Kremlin. Although this could mean an even poorer Ukraine, political catastrophes in a troubled government and an even unhappier populace, I'm excited that heated politics could make good pictures.  

In short, there's a huge power struggle going on between the president and prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Both were strong allies just a year ago, and both worked together in 2002 to take control of the government and put a pro-western coalition(of their two parties) in power. That coalition fell apart last month, leaving Ukraine out to dry. Now both are trying to win the presidency, and with the election coming in 2010, Yushchenko is running out of time.

I leave for Kyiv(Ukrainian for "Kiev") early tomorrow morning to photograph a banquet for the university(I'm trying to learn "smile please" in Ukrainian and Russian). I have no idea what's going to happen before the vote in December, but things are likely to get heated with more political demonstrations and confrontations happening across the country. 

Yushchenko's party, Nasza Ukraina(Our Ukraine), will probably lose seats in the revote, and Tymoshenko said that Yushchenko is trying to force her from office. My students didn't know this was happening on Thursday, the day after the president's announcement, but I'm certain to get an earful of it Kyiv. 

Orange flags vs. White; Ukrainian politics explodes in downtown L'viv

I was walking downtown a week ago and saw this rally for Prime Minister Tymoshenko's party. If you read my previous post, then you already know about the breakup of the coalition and how the once cordial Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko have suddenly become bitter enemies. So have their supporters. I managed to work my way into the center of the crowd, just as the Yushchenko supporters(orange flags) were staging a major upset of the rally of the Prime Minister's party(white flags). Minutes after this video, I was standing next to someone carrying a white flag when a orange flaggie charged him and tore his flag down, tearing it to shreads. The cops formed a human wall at that point and the Yushchenko supporters took over the main square.