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НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ • Липень-Серпень 2024 11 of our encounter with it. Her writing changed from the adventurous-emotional to the critical-reflexive, from declarations of national identity to an aware - ness of cultural belonging. She addressed the ques- tion of beauty and the question of death, which define our understanding of human existence. Ulti- mately, these are cultural strata of such depth that they manifest not on a rational, but on an affective level: what is capable of fascinating and terrifying us, what moves or uplifts us? By coming up against other cultures, Yablonska approached the very limits of language, approached what can be experienced but not described. It is no coincidence that her texts were accompanied by dozens of her own photographs, for which she risked her life more than once. Permeated by the euphoria for modern media, this was her attempt to confront her readers with reality, an immediate interpretative and even ethical choice: how to un - derstand and how to accept what language has not yet learned to express. Moreover, photography gave her the opportunity to change the direction of the gaze: using the “hidden camera” technique, Yablon - ska was able to capture emotions on the faces of onlookers interested in photographs of European achievements and inventions, and thus change the relationship between object and subject. She man- aged to go beyond the “oriental trap,” egocentrism, and ethnocentrism. She was helped in this by her own atypical position — her awareness of herself as a European and representative of Western culture associated with a position of strength and power, and at the same time, as a Ukrainian, a representa- tive of a subjugated and oppressed people. Yablonska's move from Lviv to Paris, her travels in Morocco, and her prolonged stay in China were successive steps in her search for the “paradise is - lands” she invented in her childhood and for which she journeyed around the world. She visited Port Said, Djibouti, Colombo, Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City), Hue, Hanoi (where she lived for three years), Laos, Phnom Penh, Angkor, Bangkok, Penang, Sin - gapore, Java, Perth, Sydney, Auckland, Lake Waika- remoana, Wellington, and the island of Rarotonga, but the goal of this trip was the Tahitian island of Bora Bora, where she spent a few months, fulfilling her childhood dream. Her journey was also a story of coming of age, up to this final realization: “In my travels from land to land I have nowhere found the paradise I hoped for. But I have sometimes, even from afar, caught a few glimmers of earthly happi - ness, which now mean so much more to me than the imagined paradises.” The First World War made Yablonska a refugee, and the Second an exile with no hope of returning to her homeland. But no matter her life’s circum- stances, she chose her own path and built her own home, keeping three very important things: a Hut - sul doll she was given during a visit to Galicia, a copy of Shevchenko’s Kobzar , and a small wooden bowl with the inscription “The house is happy with what it has.” Yablonska would return to her childhood in her memoirs, which she worked on until the final years of her life. It was a book about parenthood and inheritance, about devotion to one’s calling and responsibility to others, about the imperfection of human nature and the power of love, about cour - age and fear, acceptance and understanding. This “Woman with a Movie Camera” will peer into her own image, appearing simultaneously as heroine and author on both sides of the lens, and will once again prove through her own example that knowl- edge of one’s own “I” comes through knowing and understanding others, near and far. Olena Haleta, PhD March 2024 (translated from Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella) Chronology 1907 1915 1921 1922 1927 1929 Born May 15 in Hermaniv (today, Tarasivka), near Lviv, into the family of Greek Catholic priest Ivan Yablonsky. Family flees World War I, moving to Taganrog, Russia. Family returns to Galicia. Father Yablonsky assigned a parish in the village of Kozyova, Stryi District. Modesta Yablonska remains in Lviv with her five children — Myroslav, Yaroslav, Olha, Maria, and Sofia, affectionately called Zoika — where they are educated. Sofia takes entrance exam for the first year of the teacher’s college, but doesn’t remain long. Meets Olena Kysilevska, prominent leader of the women’s movement in Galicia, who proves important in Sofia’s later pub - lishing efforts. Moves to Paris to study acting. Meets artists such as Christian Cagliars, Alain Grandbois, and Irene Cham- pigny, and maintains close relations with Ukrainians, particularly Roman Turina, Stepan Levinsky, and the Vynnychenko family. Takes a three-month trip to Morocco, realizing a passion for travel and literature. Saves for a film camera with the help of family business, with the goal of shooting advertising footage in the French colonies.
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