Digitizing the Photographic Legacy of Vitaliy Kuzovkov: Kyiv in the 1980s

Wed, 06 May 2026 20:40:00 +0200

Darka Simchich, a 23-year-old educational manager at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, recently began digitizing the film archive of her great-grandfather, photographer Vitaliy Kuzovkov. His vibrant and warm photos, mostly from the mid-1980s, provide a unique glimpse into Kyiv of that era. The film rolls had been stored in a basement, meticulously organized and labeled by Kuzovkov himself. Motivated by a desire to preserve her great-grandfather's legacy and inspired by the urgency imposed by current events, Darka purchased a film scanner and started the painstaking process of digitization. Kuzovkov, originally from Omsk with German-Russian heritage, survived wartime hardships and eventually settled in Kyiv, balancing a career in higher mathematics with a passion for photography, mountaineering, and music. Though known locally as a photographer, he mostly avoided official recognition and only published a photo album, 'Kyiv in Autumn Colors,' in 1991. Darka reflects on his compositional skill