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Valentyn Kuzan is a portrait photographer who served as a photo correspondent for the public relations service of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade named after the Black Zaporozhians. Before the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, Valentyn Kuzan worked on the large-scale project Cultprocess—he photographed Ukrainian artists, and also shot portraits of Holodomor survivors for the Ukraїner expedition. Since the start of the Russian invasion, he has been documenting the war.
Today, Valentyn Kuzan, together with his colleague Sasha Maslov, created the photo studio “72,” named after the brigade in which he served. This space has become not only a place for shooting but also a point of strength for military personnel and civilians, where portraiture is transformed into an act of trust and therapy. Valentyn Kuzan spoke about the difficulties and challenges of working in the photo studio, returning to civilian life, and why photography today unites war, art, and community.
The Power of Photography
“I explore people through photography. I am very interested in portrait photography. In 2013, I attended a meeting with Oleksandr Hliadielov. That’s when I realized that photography can be a language one can use to say something important to oneself. To highlight topics and people that, in my opinion, need this attention.”
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Before the full-scale Russian invasion, the photographer worked on the large-scale project Cultprocess about Ukrainian artists.
“The war has been going on since 2014, and to my mind, for many years, even many hundreds of years, the Russian Federation has been trying to destroy or subordinate everything Ukrainian. And this is happening now,” Valentyn Kuzan says. “It seemed to me that the people who create meaning in our country still don’t receive enough public attention. For example, I would open books by my favorite authors and see that the photographs on the back covers were worse than those of the people I was photographing. I realized I would gradually start chipping away at this rock.”
Since 2016, Valentyn Kuzan photographed Ukrainian artists—those on whose works one can understand how Ukrainians differ from Russians, and explore one's Ukrainian identity. In 2019, Valentyn Kuzan photographed the Book Forum in Lviv, after which all Ukrainian authors began massively posting his portraits on social media.
“I invested my own money in trips because I photographed creative people in their workplaces. That was the first victory after the shoots at the Forum. I saw that something was happening, that there was attention,” the photographer says.
Valentyn Kuzan adds that many famous writers were photographed. However, at the moment his project started in Ukraine, it was only about five people. Afterward, artists used the portraits shot by Valentyn Kuzan for many years, and some even do so to this day.
“Lesyk Panasiuk, who is also currently serving, had a photograph from the Book Forum on his avatar for six years. I would like Ukrainian artists to have enough attention so that they don’t have only one shot for six years. Although, of course, it’s pleasant that I took that shot,” Valentyn smiles.
Sense of Duty
When the full-scale Russian invasion began, Valentyn Kuzan switched to shooting the war. From the very beginning, he documented the volunteer movement.
“I photographed a Protestant church in the Transcarpathian city of Khust, where internally displaced families from parts of Ukraine where hostilities were taking place were accommodated. I went into the church, and there, including in the choir stalls, mattresses were laid out and people were living,” Valentyn recalls. “In my native village in Zakarpattia, the community center was turned into a warehouse for humanitarian aid. It was important for me to take these shots, to leave memories for history.”
Since June 2022, Valentyn Kuzan began shooting military personnel directly and publishing photos in various media, such as The Ukrainians, Ukraїner, “Local History,” “Kunsht,” and others. He photographed Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline for the social media of the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; he joined the project “Stylet or Stylos” by the online publication Ukraїner and the Center for Research of the Liberation Movement, which is about Ukrainian artists, intellectuals, and people of various professions who joined the AFU; he worked on stories about scientific institutions destroyed by the occupiers for the magazine “Kunsht.”
“I remember we arrived in Kharkiv to photograph a scientific institute and climbed onto the roof to see one of the destroyed buildings of the complex. I photograph, and on the horizon, smoke is rising from another strike,” Valentyn Kuzan recounts. “This was my first encounter with the phenomenon where a city is being shelled, but people are trying to return to normal life. It was a sunny evening, we were driving near the site of the strike, and people there were walking to the store, strolling with children, with infants. It was an astonishing experience.”
While working on the “Victory Units” project with Ukraїner, Valentyn Kuzan got to know many press services. Over time, he learned that there was a photographer vacancy.
“I decided that if I was going to photograph the war, I would do it humanely, directly on the ground,” Valentyn explains.
The Need for Communication
Until January 2025, Valentyn Kuzan served as a photo correspondent for the public relations service of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade named after the Black Zaporozhians.
“I didn’t join this particular brigade by chance. I knew it played an important role in the defense of Kyiv. It was a super sensitive moment when we could have lost our statehood. However, thanks in part to the 72nd Brigade, which was the backbone of the capital’s defense, we did not lose it,” Valentyn Kuzan says.
When he went to serve, he set himself an ambitious goal—to take the maximum number of portraits of the brigade’s military personnel to capture the history of the war in faces. Valentyn not only photographed the soldiers but also conducted short interviews with them to tell, at least in general terms, about their combat and life paths.
After leaving the military, Valentyn Kuzan continued to photograph soldiers, but already in his own studio. He received a veteran grant and, together with photographer Sasha Maslov, created the photo studio “72,” named after the brigade.
“The name works. A military serviceman completely unknown to me saw the inscription ‘Studio 72’ on Google Maps. He became interested, found information, and realized—they are ‘ours’,” Valentyn Kuzan says. “I photographed the serviceman with his wife, recorded his story.”
Valentyn Kuzan tries to photograph active military personnel and veterans on a voluntary basis. Veteran days are also held at the photo studio.
“We invite photographers who love and know how to shoot portraits. They photograph veterans, who can come with relatives, friends, or comrades-in-arms,” Valentyn Kuzan recounts.
The photo studio has become a place not only for shooting but also for warm gatherings of veterans, military personnel, and the Ukrainian photography community.
Sense of Unity
A good portrait requires establishing good contact and trust between the photographer and their subject. Valentyn Kuzan recalls that he was quite a closed child. In the process of growing up, it took him a long time to learn how to communicate with people. When he went into journalism, one of the reasons was to learn this communication. He and his classmates conducted street surveys, which was maximally uncomfortable. He worked part-time as a consultant in a supermarket, where he constantly talked to strangers. After years of working as a portrait photographer, Valentyn Kuzan developed his own techniques for communication.
“It is important to show genuine interest in the person you are working with, giving a chance that you have much more in common and that the person can tell much more than may seem at first glance,” Valentyn shares. “If you ask enough questions, something interesting will definitely be revealed in a person’s life.”
Valentyn Kuzan says that the biggest barrier was at the beginning of working with military personnel. He came to soldiers who had already been through several rotations since 2014 and had seen terrible things. Initially, Valentyn did not have a sense of basic equality. However, there is the factor of the military uniform, which unites and which worked well in the brigade where the photographer served. Valentyn Kuzan did not have cases where people radically refused to be photographed or treated his work with disdain.
“Everything turned out to be simpler than I thought. The rule is: if you are on the same side as me and you came to me—you are my guest. Soldiers treat you to candies, tea, show gifts from volunteers, a conversation starts,” Valentyn Kuzan recounts. “The most wonderful thing about the military is that everyone around you is ‘ours.’ Everyone has a similar experience.”
Depth of Memory
“For me, the concept of ‘Ukrainian photography’ profoundly opened up now, with the full-scale war. Before that, it didn’t have such a distinct face for me,” Valentyn Kuzan says. “With the start of the Russian invasion, we saw how many people are photographing the war and how they are photographing the war: selflessly, qualitatively, uncompromisingly, sacrificially, and then the strength of the Ukrainian photo community was revealed.”
Valentyn adds that with the start of the full-scale war, the community of Ukrainian photographers became stronger, and today it is an environment of like-minded people.
For Valentyn Kuzan, Ukrainian photography today is connected with the full-scale war. However, he also speaks about the importance of archival Ukrainian photography. At one time, the photographer joined the Ukraїner expedition, where he shot portraits of people who survived the Holodomor.
“We were asking not only eyewitnesses but also talking to local historians. They have veritable treasures of Ukrainian archival photography in museums. This material is not publicly available. We tried to change the situation together with Olga Kovalova, writing grants for the creation of archives,” Valentyn recalls. “If we collect archival photographs, systematize them, a very interesting picture will emerge for us. It will turn out that we don’t know Ukrainian photography at all.”
Community Support
When Valentyn Kuzan was discharged from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he took advantage of the advice he heard from military personnel during interviews with them. Three pieces of advice were not addressed specifically to the photographer, but he realized that they work. The first is to constantly be busy, actively engaged in something so as not to stagnate. The second is sports. The more work for the body, the easier it is for the brain. The third is the support of relatives, friends, and the environment.
“When you are in the military, you are always among people, you are always among others who are just like you. When you return to civilian life—a vacuum forms in that place. There is a close circle of relatives and close people, there is an identity at the country level, but the middle link is missing,” Valentyn Kuzan explains. “I also lacked this and went to several events for veterans. It turned out that these are people with the same problems and concerns as me. I saw support there, I was in an environment that helps me.”
The community of professional photographers, the community of people documenting the war, also provides support.
“In Olga Kovalova's stories every day since the start of the full-scale invasion, there is a digest of what was in the feed of Ukrainian photographers for the day. Over three and a half years of the full-scale war, one could see so much outstanding and quality work there,” Valentyn says. “Most often, these shots depict various horrific events. However, if they are happening, it is our destiny to document them. I am captivated by what Ukrainian photographers are doing now. This also gives a sense of community and support, an awareness that we are doing invaluable work.”
Valentyn Kuzan — born in 1986 in the village of Dovhe, Zakarpattia, where he graduated from school and music school (guitar class). He became interested in photography, and had his first commercial shoot while in tenth grade. In 2003, he enrolled at Uzhhorod National University, Faculty of Philology, Department of Journalism. Over five years, he hosted live broadcasts on television and radio, completed an internship as a photo correspondent under the OSCE program, participated in a photo seminar by Reuters, and was a co-organizer of literary events, concerts, and two art festivals, one of which lasted 13 years. As a poet, he was published in almanacs, the most interesting of which was "Train 76," edited by Andrukhovych and Boychenko.
Before the full-scale Russian invasion, he had a large photo project, Cultprocess, in which he photographed Ukrainian artists, and did portraits of Holodomor survivors for Ukraїner. He also did commissioned portrait photography. Since the start of the invasion, he has been photographing the war—he was a member of the group that photographed Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline for the social media of the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, joined the project “Stylet or Stylos” by the online publication Ukraїner and the Center for Research of the Liberation Movement, which is about Ukrainian artists, intellectuals, and people of various professions who joined the AFU, and created stories about scientific institutions destroyed by the occupiers for the magazine “Kunsht.”
The photographer’s social media: Facebook, Instagram
The material was prepared by:
Topic Researcher, Text Author: Katia Moskalyuk
Visual Editor: Vladyslav Krasnoshchok
Literary Editor: Yuliia Futei
