Yuri Boyko

It was late 2008. The auto industry went bust, and the housing meltdown triggered global financial markets. The mood was gloomy and new president-elect Obama had been promising the dawn of a new era. At the time, I was in Kyiv, Ukraine in the midst of a precipitated devaluation of local currency. It had a devastating effect on local people's lives.

One day, when I walked into a neighborhood cafe, one of the regulars from a nearby banking institution was sitting alone. On his otherwise empty table were two carafes: one with vodka and another with tomato juice. Silently, he would pour vodka into the glass, gulp, and chase it with tomato juice, continuing to stare into the nothingness in front of him. That was it: I came home and shot a central part of the series - a human breakdown.

I also realized this breakdown is just one stage of human experience. To reflect that, I created a series of photographs. The first stage is one of vigor, success and unquestioned well being. This is followed by the devastation of blurry red and clear pierced black images before a time of healing. The latter is eternal - constant reevaluation of the self leads to rediscovery and new levels of understanding. The final images of healing come from the 11th century handwritten manuscript of Cyrillic text from Kyiv Rus where a single letter, depicted in the final picture, corresponds to the eternal 'self'.

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