Dear Lanzheron
Text by Nikolay Karabinovych
Why validate these images with a boring curatorial text? A waste of time. They are of a different nature, beautiful and self-evident. Describing them in such alien language, they cease to shine, and are lost among hundreds of thousands of others. No, I shall not do this. Instead - I'll tell you a little story.
The author of these photos is my dear friend, Christopher-in-love-with-Odesa. Half-French / half-English, as he often points out. In this place, an elusive connection can be traced - after all, Lanzheron was also French. But what magic force draws him to this beach, again and again?
Of course, this is une aventure. But I’m convinced that it’s out of love for this place, this land, this coast. Love and joy of belonging. The same place, a shore, the same setting sun, every time covering new bodies and new situations. There was nothing here 10 years ago. Concrete slabs and nearby, the old sports ground.
As a child, during summer, I’d go with my granny to Lanzheron. Frankly, I was never too happy about it. Reaching the beach took over an hour. Somewhere around The Eternal Flame it would become unbearable. Weighed down with bedding, towels, buckets, spades, water bottles, sandwiches, tomatoes, and salt in a matchbox, I trudged along, dreaming of the cherished Two Balls. We’d spread our bedding on the sand, we never went to where the embankment would later appear. My Lanzheron is sand and two balls. It is all the more interesting to see this place through different eyes.
I imagine a romantic film, a soft French comedy, a resort novella titled Dear Lanzheron. I like this name. It appeals to me - the start of a letter addressed to an imaginary place. In this letter, there would definitely be a place for postcards. So here they are, in your hands and on your walls. I am glad these photographs have found their place right here, in the very heart of Odessa. These are scenes of life from one embankment. I look upon them and reflect… what unites all these people? They are happy, they are by the sea, on the shore. I am glad that Christopher was there too, and was able to prolong this joy.
These images were shot between 2013 and 2021. Some of them are on permanent display at Sonntag Rooms in Odesa. The owner of the space, Klara Bulgakova, left Ukraine on Friday 25th February 2022, to seek sanctuary in the EU.
Your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.