JOSEPH SYWENKYJ : PHOTOGRAPHY

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Biography

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Joseph Sywenkyj, a documentary photographer and photojournalist lives in Kyiv, Ukraine. He has worked throughout the former Soviet Union for many international publications. Currently he is working on a long-term project in Ukraine about the various health crises facing the nation entitled Verses. The past few years he has been concentrating his lens on a family in Odessa living with HIV. They are currently receiving free antiretroviral treatment from a program started by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. Sywenkyj's project has been supported by various grants including the 2002 Joop Swart World Press Photo Masterclass and a 2003 - 04 Fulbright Foreign Grant.

In 2002, Joseph Sywenkyj received his BFA with honors in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Clients

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Exhibitions

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Awards & Grants

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Publications

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Resume Download

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Portfolio:

Verses, Sasha and Ira.

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Sasha and Ira live in the port city of Odessa in southern Ukraine. They have been aware of their HIV-positive status since 1998. They most likely became infected with HIV through intravenous drug use, though they are no longer using. In 2001, Ira gave birth to Masha, and her HIV-positive status was confirmed approximately one year later. In 2004, Ira had another child named Genic. Exactly one year later she gave birth to Zhenia. It is not yet known if Genic and Zhenia are HIV-positive. Sasha and Ira now have 7 children ranging in age from 1 year to 16 years of age. Currently only one child, Masha, has been confirmed as HIV-positive. Both Sasha and Ira receive free antiretroviral treatment through a program started by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.

Verses, HIV/AIDS.

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The fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s led to the collapse of Ukraine's health care system as well as wide spread poverty and economic and emotional depression. This gave fertile ground for the AIDS epidemic to lay its roots. The disease initially spread through intravenous drug users and sex workers in the southern parts of the country. HIV/AIDS can now be found in all of Ukraine's regions. Despite stepped up efforts to fight the disease, Ukraine has one of the fastest growing HIV infection rates in the world. There are over 70,000 registered cases of HIV/AIDS out of a population of 49 million; however, UNAIDS estimates that the actual number of cases is between 360,000 and 590,000.

Verses, Tubuerculosis.

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Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is transmitted through the air from one person to another in close quarters. Currently, 70 out of every 100,000 people in Ukraine are infected with TB compared to 32 per 100,000 in 1990. I was told by numerous doctors in 2002 that the infection rates continue to climb even though the Ukrainian government has received international funding to fight TB. Many TB patients are kept in a hospital for approximately six months to over a year to stop them from infecting other people. Patients receive free medication to fight the disease; however, they must pay for other medications and supplies. Thirty-five percent of Ukraine's TB cases are multi-drug-resistant. Also known as MDR-TB, it is virtually incurable. If individuals are stricken by MDR-TB, they are separated from other patients and little can be done to save their lives.

Verses, Children of Chornobyl.

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In 2000, I traveled to Ukraine working for the Children of Chornobyl* Relief Fund photographing in their partnership hospitals and various orphanages. There I photographed young cancer patients and children in orphanages with physical and mental disabilities.

* The US Library of Congress and the National Geographic Society recommend the Ukrainian spelling of Chornobyl instead of "Chernobyl," the spelling used during the Soviet era.

Verses, Children of Chornobyl (cont'd).

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On April 26, 1986, reactor #4 at the Chornobyl Atomic Energy Station in northern Ukraine exploded. As a result, an estimated 260 million curies of radiation were released. This is approximately 200 times more radiation than was released by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Radiation from Chornobyl rained down on unsuspecting victims and their unborn children in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia contaminating some of the world's richest soil and condemning millions of people to future illnesses and death. Cancer rates among children in regions affected by radiation have risen steadily over the years. Also, multiple studies have shown that since the explosion of the nuclear plant in Chornobyl, birth defects due to chromosome damage have doubled.

D.R.C.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) located in central Africa is a vast nation rich in resources. The nation was ravaged for five years by what has been called Africa's World War claiming the lives of over 3 million people. The average annual income in the DRC in 2006 is $110 with a life expectancy of 42 and 44 years for men and women respectively.

In 2003 I traveled to the DRC to work on a story about the trend of so-called child witchcraft. In Kinshasa, thousands of children are being accused of practicing witchcraft and are being cast out of their homes. An estimated 60 - 80% of street children have been accused of witchcraft. At the time, Save the Children estimated that there were up to 20,000 so-called child witches, many of which end up on the streets living from day-to-day working as porters, pickpockets, and / or prostitutes.

Making matters worse, there are hundreds of revelation ministries that claim to be able to perform exorcisms, known as deliverance, to free children of evil spirits. During deliverance, children are forced to confess to sorcery through intense questioning, depravation, and abuse. In some cases children are denied food for up to a week, while others are beaten with bicycle chains scolded with hot water or burned with fire. In at least one documented case, a child died after being doused with gasoline and set on fire.

Numerous children interviewed in centers run by an organization named ORPER, Oeuvre de Reclassment et de Protection des Enfents de La Rue / The Work of the Social Reintegration and Protection of Street Children, gave testimonies of severe abuse. Family members often beat children until they admit they are witches. Sometimes the children are cast out of their homes or they run away. When a child runs away to avoid continuous beatings and humiliation, parents and pastors claim this to be an affirmation of sorcery, for only a witch would run away.

At the Asseblee Israel Ministere de Combat Contre la Sorcellerie / Assembly Israel: Ministry to Combat Against Sorcery six children were held for five days prior to a ceremony called deliverance. The children: Olga, 6; Chance, 7; Jonas, 8; Jivenz, 9; Nadine, 9; Glodi, 10; and Sarah, 11 were forced to stay at the church in a small filthy room without a roof. They spent their days and nights laying on thin mats on the ground and seemed obviously depressed, confused, scared, and most of all hungry and thirsty. The pastors claimed the children were fasting in preparation for deliverance from the evil spirits within them.

The children were denied food and water for five straight days and nights. Shortly after I arrived at 9:30 p.m., Olga, a hungry 6-year-old child, cried out for help. "Give me water, give me water, please father, please, give me water!" Many attendees at the deliverance ceremony, including her father and mother heard her cries. She was ignored at first, but as her cries became more frequent and louder, she was threatened, humiliated, and beaten into submission several times.

The pastors were dressed in shiny colorful gowns lecturing, praying, singing, and drumming. The time for deliverance approached around 2:00 am, and the crowd of approximately 100 people was broken into two groups in order to make space for the so-called child witches and pastors.The children were brought out one-by-one, from the oldest to the youngest, to face the pastors. They were forced onto the ground, often pushed directly over onto their backs or sides. Sometimes the children were caught by another pastor and placed on the ground, sometimes not. Several children fell directly to the ground because of physical exhaustion and dizziness from literally being spun around by the pastor. Once on the ground, the pastor stood over each child, yelled at him / her, and touched his / her entire body usually starting with the head and moving down to the feet.

In one case, the pastor pulled a girl's skirt down exposing her genitals and felt her way down her stomach. Her hands were then placed on her vagina, and the pastor made a motion as if she was pulling an evil spirit out through the child's reproductive organs.

There are hundreds of ministries in Kinshasa alone which claim they can deliver children from witchcraft. Often these so-called pastors fabricate tales of witchcraft in order to profit, for the pastors collect money or gifts for their services from those who are looking for a scapegoat for their problems. Falsely accusing an innocent child of witchcraft is often the easiest answer.

This project has been made possible with generous support from Kodak Professional™