Andrievskii Descent at Sunset A Walk through one of my favorite stretches of Kyiv Free and always open Month of March, 2017
Photojournalism by Rebekah Welch
There are many persons, places, and things I love about Kyiv, but undoubtedly, there is one place pretty much everyone agrees is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful spots in the city (not to mention, exploring it is free). It’s not one location so much as a stretch of road, leading those who travel it though the high hills of the city center to neighborhood of Podil. The road is brick and the architecture is classically European, the people are all ages and all classes, and the views are nothing short of spectacular, particularly if you go at the start of “the golden hour”, photographer speak for one hour before the sun sets. Words will fall short, and so, I want to show you one of my favorite stretches of road during golden hour from start to finish through my camera lens.
A few hundred feet down the steep descent is the iconic Andrievskii Cathedral.A woman snaps a picture of the descent above her on March 28, 2017.A boy waits for his mother outside one of the restaurants alongside the descent after school, on March 28, 2017.Looking down Andrievskii Descent from a few hundred feet down the hill as the sun starts to set, on March 28, 2017.Workers of a convenience store in Kyiv take a smoke break further down the descent. Although the descent is home to numerous high class restaurants and shops, there are many lower class workers along the descent as well. Here, the contrast between Ukraine’s wealthy and poorer citizens is very observable.Just outside the convenience store pictured above, a woman climbs into a Range Rover, one of the most commonly recognizable status symbols in Ukraine.A woman leads her daughter up to one of overlooks along Andrievskii Descent on March 28, 2017. Along the descent are staircases leading to both paved overlooks of the city and paths through the heavily wooded hilly areas in Kyiv’s center.A pair of friends chilling atop of one of the overlooks along Andrievskii Descent, on March 28, 2017.The view from one of the overlooks along Andrieskii Descent as the sun sets on March 28, 2017.A woman knits alongside her stand on Andrievskii Descent as people pass her by on March 28, 2017. The Descent is also lined with souvenir stands.Just one of the many interesting structures alongside Andrievskii Descent that caught this photographers eye on March 28, 2017.A woman checks out the schedule for a theater towards the bottom of Andrievskii Descent on March 28, 2017.The view that awaits you at the bottom of the descent, the entrance into Podil, another of Kyiv’s great districts. However, we’ll save that for another post.
Rebekah Welch is a senior at University of Montana in Missoula. She is a double major in Russian and Journalism with an emphasis on photography. She is studying Russian language at NovaMova in Kiev, and am also working for the school as an intern, creating a photoblog. After a semester abroad, she hopes to become fluent enough in Russian that she can work as photojournalist throughout Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Although she loves this area of the world, she has a passion for journalism and will go wherever the story takes her.
