Author: Oksana Dragomyretska

Ivan Bazhanskyi, whose 160th birth anniversary we celebrated on 26 February 2023, was not only an outstanding teacher and a talented writer, but also the first enthusiastic photographer in Bukovyna. Thanks to I. Bazhanskyi's photographs, contemporaries can discover the faces of our true history.

The artist's passionate involvement in photography began in 1893–1895 and, according to the memoirs of the writer's daughter Olha Bazhanska-Shevchukevych, lasted for about three decades, until 1923. At that time, Ivan Bazhanskyi thoroughly studied all available literature, consulted with professional photographers in Chernivtsi, purchased a Carl Zeiss camera, 18×24 cm format, "on an instalment plan", and began taking photographs… Keeping up with the development of photography, Ivan Bazhanskyi used various cameras and photographic processes, working not only with glass photographic plates but also with film in 9×12 cm format. However, judging by the different sizes of glass negatives dating back to the turn of the century, it can be argued that the amateur photographer had at least two cameras from the very beginning, as there were no photographic enlargers then, and different cameras of appropriate size were used to obtain different sized photographs. According to his daughter Olha's memoirs, her father even set up something akin to a photo studio in their home, acquiring a professional decorative backdrop and appropriate lighting.

The Chernivtsi Regional Museum of Local Lore (ChOKM) holds twelve glass photographic plates with negatives, taken by I. Bazhanskyi, in excellent condition. They are of different sizes. Ten of them are 13×18 cm, 1 is 8.5×11.5 cm, and 1 is 8.8×11.8 cm. The negatives depict various scenes from the village of Vikno (then in Zastavna county) and the town of Vashkivtsi, where I. Bazhanskyi taught in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.