Nikolai Kozlovsky Explained

Nikolai Fedorovich Kozlovsky (Ukrainian: Микола Федорович Козловський, 1921–1996) was a Ukrainian Soviet photographer and teacher.^[1]

Biography

Nikolai Fedorovich Kozlovsky was born 8 May 1921 in Sumy, now in Ukraine.

Career

In 1937 and 1938, while still in his teens, Kozlovsky photographed at ‘Artek’ children’s ‘pioneer’ camp  on the southern coast of the Crimea in the village of Gurzuf, a "treatment camp" for children with tuberculosis, diseases of the nervous system, overfatigue and anemia, which by the beginning of the 1930s, had been made a year-round facility.  Kozlovsky’s photographs show the children, sometimes dressed in sailor’s uniform, sunbathing, playing snooker, sightseeing and sounding the bugle.^[2]

His first serious photo piece was titled "Ukrainian Nuremberg", depicting a trial of Nazis that took place in Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti in January 1946.^[3]

Magazine photographer

In 1948 he joined the magazine Ogonek in Ukraine as a special photo correspondent, remaining with the magazine for nearly forty years. Many of his photographs are in colour and are in an heroic socialist realist style depicting such scenes as father and son washing their Volga car before going to Stalino [Donetsk], a family of 'Heroes of Socialist Labor' enjoying an al fresco meal in their collective farm in Bedia, Georgia,^[4] and tourism in the Carpathians.^[5] For the magazine he made portraits of Ukrainian and Soviet personalities Buchma A., M. Krushelnitsky, N. Uzhviy, E. Ponomarenko, Y. Shumsky, N. Romanov, M. Litvinenko-Wohlgemuth, I. Patorzhinskogo, Jura, Z. Gaidai, N. Grishko. He was a prolific photographer of the city of Kiev, recording images which are now a valuable historic record.^[6]

Kozlovsky was a teacher of photography, one of his students being the noted Yuri Buslenko (1951–2014).

International recognition

In 1955 Edward Steichen selected Kozlovsky's picture of traditional dancers, discovered by assistant Wayne Miller at the Sovfoto agency, for the ‘Ring a Ring o' Roses’ section of the world touring Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man, seen by 9 million visitors, and its catalogue, which is still in print.^[7] Kozlovsky's photography also featured in a 1984 edition of the magazine Soviet Life distributed in the United States^[8]

Kozlovsky's many illustrated books were widely distributed and his prodigious output was recognised in 1986 when he was winner of the Shevchenko Prize for his book "Kiev".

The photographer features in Anatoliĭ Sofronov's novel Meetings with Sholokhov

He died on August 15, 1996, in his beloved Kiev.

Publications

Among his creative works are more than 30 photography books, including:

• 1956 «Peyzazhi Zakarpat'ya» ("Landscapes of Transcarpathia”)
• 1959 «Po Zakarpat'yu» (“In Transcarpathia”)
• 1960 «Snova tsvetut kashtany» ("The chestnuts are again in bloom”) with Dmitri Baltermants and Oles Honchar
• 1961 «V bratskoy Bolgarii» ("In fraternal Bulgaria”)
• 1962 «V ob"yektive Yaponiya» (“Japan in the Lens”) circulation 12000.
• 1962 «Cherez 15 morey i 2 okeana» (“Through 15 Seas and 2 Oceans”) circulation 20000.
• 1968 «Desna — krasunya» ("Desna the Beautiful”) Nikolay Kozlovskiy (photography),Oleg Shmelev (text)
• 1969 «Tam gde rozhdayetsya utro» (“Where the Morning Is Born”) with Henry Gurkov. Moscow: Pravda
• 1967 «Karpaty zovut» (“The Carpathians call.”) Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1967 «Kiyev i kiyevlyane» ("Kiev and the Kievites”) Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1969 «U nas na Kamchatke» (“Our Kamchatka”) Soviet Russia.^[9]
• 1973 «V ob"yektive zhizn'» (“Life in the Lens”)  Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1976 «Kiêve míy» (“My Kiev”) Kiev: Mystetstvo. Circulation: 40000^[10]
• 1979 «Kiyev i kiyevlyane» ("Kiev and the people of Kiev”) Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1981 «Vysokiye paralleli» (“Sublime parallel”) N.Kozlovskiy, L.Ustinov, V.Chin-Mo Tsaya. Circulation 15000
• 1982 «Balet» (“Ballet”) Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1982«Fotografii» (“Photographs”) Moscow: The Planet, 1982. 28x26 cm. - 20,000 copies
• 1984 «Patonovtsy» On the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Electric Welding. Patona. Kiev: Science. 5000 copies
• 1985 «Po Dnepru. (“On the Dnieper”) Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1986 «Kiêve míy» (“This is Kiev”) Kiev: Mystetstvo
• 1987 «Kií̈v» (“Kiev”) Kiev: "Mystetstvo", 1987. Circulation 25000 copies. Printed in Yugoslavia, Belgrade
• 1987 «Patonovtsy»  2nd ed., Revised. and expanded. - Kiev: Science,  6700 copies
• 1993 «Kiyev» (“Kiev”). 2nd ed. Kiev: Mystetstvo"

Awards and Prizes

• Honoured Cultural Worker USSR
• The State Prize named for TG Shevchenko (1986) for the photo album "My Kiev"^[11]
• Order of the Badge of Honour
• Y. A. Galan Prize

Notes and References

1. http://calendar.interesniy.kiev.ua/Event.aspx?id=5070 Biography at Kiev Calendar site
2. http://rgakfd.ru/documents-collections/2017-virtualnaya-vystavka-u-teplogo-morya Russian State Archive of Cinema Virtual exhibition "The warm sea …”
3. Web site: 100 photos of Mykola Kozlovsky (in ukrainian). amnesia.in.ua. 2019-02-25.
4. https://vakin.livejournal.com/879209.html a selection of colour photographs from Ogonek
5. http://photo-lviv.in.ua/kazkovi-karpaty-na-foto-1966-roku/ Kozlovsky's photographs of tourism in the Carpathians in 1966
6. https://ukr.segodnya.ua/lifestyle/fun/oni-ostanovili-vremya-kak-zhili-kievskie-fotografy-150-let-nazad-708364.html Alex Panchenko 'Photographers stopped time to show Kiev 150 years ago' Stokovi magazine, Lifestyle supplement, April 17, 2016.
7. Book: Steichen, Edward . Steichen, Edward, 1879–1973, (organizer.) . Sandburg, Carl, 1878–1967, (writer of foreword.) . Norman, Dorothy, 1905–1997, (writer of added text.) . Lionni, Leo, 1910–1999, (book designer.) . Mason, Jerry, (editor.) . Stoller, Ezra, (photographer.) . Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) . The family of man : the photographic exhibition . 1955 . Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation .
8. Soviet life. (1969). Washington, D.C.
9. http://www.knigakamchatka.ru/fotoalbomy-kamchatki/kozlovskii-u-nas-na-kamchatke.html Description, contents and cover of U nas na Kamchatke at Kamchatka library
10. https://ok.ru/kiev.klab/topic/67007314100335 Photographs of Kiev from "My Kyiv"(1976) and "Kiev and the Kievites” (1968)
11. Management Of Culture and Tourism of Sumso Regional State Administration, Regional Universal Scientific Library: Anniversary of the Shevchenko Prize 1961–2011 [www.ounb.sumy.ua/publish/2011/kob.doc]