DOUBLE EXPOSURE: Rhapsody in Orange (05/15/05)

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

by Khristina Lew

Rhapsody in Orange

It's been five weeks since Viktor Yushchenko's triumphant visit to the United States as the extraordinarily elected president of Ukraine, and the days of orange balloons and saffron neckties are behind us. Mr. Yushchenko's administration has long rolled up its sleeves and settled into the hard work ahead, but for a moment, let's bask in the exuberance of those three heady days in April.

As a reporter and a photographer, I'm in the unique position of watching history as it unfolds, very often behind the lens of my very old Nikon. It's an advantageous place to be - you're invisible to your subject behind the sharp flash, and you get drawn into a private realm that few others see. This is the payback for the sometimes countless hours you spend waiting to capture the perfect image, jostling with other photographers who are trying to do the same.

Viktor Yushchenko is a curious subject. He is serious and single-mindedly determined to create a better Ukraine than he inherited. During the two days that I photographed him in Washington for Svoboda (the UNA's Ukrainian-language newspaper), he repeatedly talked about how, after a rocky start, Ukraine was ready to take its rightful place at the center of Europe; how even though it had achieved independence in 1991, Ukraine was not truly free until now; about how the Orange Revolution gave voice to the true character of the Ukrainian people.

Mr. Yushchenko speaks with conviction, yet I couldn't help wondering how it was that he galvanized hundreds of thousands to protest in the snow of Kyiv's Independence Square. Then I saw him at Georgetown University. He had delivered a speech to a packed auditorium of Georgetown students, outlining his vision for the future of Ukraine. Afterwards, a group of 30 or so students milled about his limousines, and I overheard one saying to the other, "I expected him to be more dynamic."

When he came out of the building a few minutes later, these very same students - none Ukrainian - burst out chanting "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!" And suddenly President Yushchenko came alive, making his way into the crowd, smiling, holding out his hands to greet his well-wishers. It was a spontaneous, unscripted moment, and it was awesome.

There were one or two other moments during his very tight, very scripted next full day in Washington, on April 6: the solemnity and grace with which he accepted a gift from the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, right after lighting candles for the victims of Babyn Yar and Auschwitz in the Hall of Remembrance, or the genuine warmth he expressed for former Czech President Vaclav Havel when they greeted one another at a reception in the Ukrainian president's honor hosted by the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute at the Willard Hotel.

The defining moment for me came at the concluding banquet for 1,200 held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. The president got up to deliver his keynote address, the fifth speech I would hear him give in two days. He hit all his talking points, and then he switched gears and began talking about the early days of the Orange Revolution. He said, and I paraphrase, that he himself wasn't sure that it all wouldn't end in violence and confusion, that it was only through God's blessing that the will of the Ukrainian people triumphed. He gave the audience a moment to absorb his confession, and then he moved on to another topic.

I don't know if it was the allusion to divine intervention or the admission of doubt, but, for me, a leader was born, and suddenly the snow wasn't so cold anymore.

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