Photographer Denys Kryvyi killed in battles for Bakhmut

Denys Kryvyi, a Ukrainian nature photographer/ author of numerous publications in the media (from the GardCity site (Pervomaisk, Mykolayiv Region) to National Geographic Ukraine)/ Special Operations Forces fighter, was killed in the battles for Bakhmut on May 11.

“He was always very talented, inspired, and energetic,” Volodymyr Haluzinskyi, Denys‘s close friend/journalist from Pervomaisk, said in a comment to the NUJU. “From the first days he appeared in our city (his mother is from here), he immediately became the center of any company. He was cheerful and restless and always deeply respected by people. He always dove into everything he was interested in.”

“He always did everything and even more, but he thought it was still insufficient. He voluntarily chose his path and walked along it with honor,” Denys‘s wife Halyna Volhina wrote on a social network.

Denys was born in Cherniakhiv, Zhytomyr Region, on October 19, 1988. He studied at the Faculty of History at the Pervomaisk Institute of Odesa I.I. Mechnikov national university. He worked in design, computer graphics, and media design.

Since his student years, he has been fond of tourism and landscape photography. He started taking pictures with simple digital cameras, and in a few years, he grew to the level of a famous photographer. He shot a lot in the Carpathians. He is the author of most of the most famous pictures of the nature of the Buh Gard National Park.

“[He was] young, energetic, and talented… [He was] the author of the photo exhibition Beauty of the Buh Gard, which was repeatedly shown in different museums of our country. Denys Kryvyi‘s photos are displayed in publications of the Buh Gard National Nature Park, on the park’s website, stands, guidebooks, postcards, and other publications,” the national park informs.

Denys was the winner of numerous photo contests (in particular, the winner of the Blue Ribbon award of the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP)), a participant in exhibitions of photos of natural landscapes and animals in various cities of Ukraine, as well as in Kosovo. He conducted professional plein airs, seminars, and training sessions. In recent years, he had been fond of aerial photography.

When the full-scale war began, Denys started volunteering from the first days because he had considerable ties in Ukraine and abroad, thanks to photography.

“He got a lot of things for the army and the humanitarian needs of Pervomaisk,” said Denys‘s friend Volodymyr Haluzinskyi. “But he was a person who always did his best but always believed that it was not enough. That is why he thought he was not doing enough in volunteering. In the end, he voluntarily mobilized into the army and joined the Special Operations Forces in the summer of 2022.”

Denys is survived by his wife, Halyna, and two daughters, Solomiya (born in 2018) and Melissa (born in 2020), whom he loved very much.

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) expresses its condolences to the relatives of Denys Kryvyi and to all who knew and loved him. Gratitude and eternal memory to the Hero!