"... about Khrystyna and her work. It's impressive - melancholic and ethereal. The spare backgrounds give us a window into her inspirations, the great Avedon, Mr. Penn, and a little Sally Mann to boot."

"Khrystyna Chechlata is getting old...I mean she's almost 20. Khrystyna was born in Kiev, in the Ukraine, under pretty dire financial circumstances. Khrystyna started taking pictures at 16, and learned the basics at her high school in Washington, DC. She is currently in her second semester at Pratt Institute studying photography. The difficulty of her childhood and overwhelming experience of immigrating to the US has strongly affected her work, and taught her about the power of art and the change it can generate.

More about Khrystyna and her work. It's impressive - melancholic and ethereal. The spare backgrounds give us a window into her inspirations, the great Avedon, Mr. Penn, and a little Sally Mann to boot. To test the waters of portraiture, Khrystyna started out by turning the camera on herself, to explore the relationship of subject and photographer. The results... well she decided to photograph other people. Intrinsically, she builds a sense of connection and confidence. Her portraits are empathetic and compassionate. A young man in a plaid shirt and strong stare looks lazily at the camera, centered in a doorway and seems almost as if Diane Arbus had been tapping on his shoulder - this is just one of the many beautiful photographs she has taken that show the power a single picture can have over human emotion and awareness.

Khrystyna's best friend is her mother, a music teacher from Kiev, who led her to finding her photographic voice. Khrystyna Chekhlata may be young, but her photographs are that of an old soul."

~ Mark Seliger

Khrystyna is currently a junior at SVA in New York. In her essay, an important part of YPA's scholarship application process, Khrystyna writes:

It was a melancholy November night in my hometown, Kyiv, Ukraine. I stood behind the door of my room looking through a crack, hearing my mother call his name in desperation. I watched him walk quickly through the corridor and out the door, finalizing his exit with a loud door slam, making the paint crush from the ceiling. We lived by the train station and the furniture shook every time a train went by, but this time it felt like an earthquake.

His gray silhouette disappearing into the painful clarity of cracked paint and faded wallpaper that enveloped my front door-this image has become imprinted in my memory forever. A light bulb above his head was flashing frantically as if it were alive and its pulse was about to give-that was exactly how I felt watching my father walk out. The thermometer mark was crawling below zero and I remembered that I still did not have a winter coat.

The difficulty of my childhood and the overwhelming experience of immigration to the United States have strongly affected my choice of career and way of life. I discovered a lot when I volunteered to teach music to young children from difficult backgrounds (www.guitarsnotguns.org/virginia). I saw how much pain and anxiety my students were going through and how much music helped them bear and overcome that pain. I had learned about the power of art and the change it can generate.

Photography has taught me that the still image serves as a document of a moment that can never exist again in its original form. I became absolutely overwhelmed with the power a single photograph can have over human emotion and awareness.

The focus in my work has drifted through different subject matter. Recently, I found myself taking a great interest and initiative in the exploration of social anxiety and identity crises that my generation is going through. Another topic of mine that awaits deeper exploration is the way young adults exploit sexuality in their quest for identity. I have been working on a series of portraits that have inspired me and allowed me to see through the psychological barriers my subjects are forced to put up in their daily lives.

My focus is inspired by my personal experiences and observations. I've gone through a fair amount of hurt along with significant financial difficulty and social anxiety of which I am now fully aware. I've learned how much awareness of such things improves people's communication skills and self-image. I feel truly blessed with the opportunity to generate social awareness with my art.

Young Photographers Alliance (YPA) is a global community where young photographers connect with the inspiration, resources and contacts they need to build successful and sustainable careers as the great artists and communicators of the future.

Learn more at www.youngphotographersalliance.org

Khrystyna Chekhlata and Mark Seliger © Dexter Lane/Young Photographers Alliance