March 18 marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of Jozef Khmelevskyi, a famous photographer-artist, the author of unique pictures of the life of the provincial town, its prominent people and landmarks. He was born in Warsaw. But fate connected him with Poltava. It was here that he moved, having married Oleksandra, the daughter of the Poltava pharmacist M. Romer. Here, in 1875, he opened his first photo studio - on the corner of Oleksandrivska street and Stritenska street (now Sobornosti st. and Stritenska st). Khmelevskyi became a well-known photojournalist of Poltava: he immortalized the participants in the opening of the monument to Ivan Kotliarevskyi (1903), the visit to Poltava by members of the imperial court (1909). His works were exhibited at many domestic and international exhibitions and were awarded prizes.
In Poltava, Jozef Khmelevskyi created two famous photo albums: "Gogol on the Homeland" and "Zemskyi House in Poltava", which preserved the unique beauty of Vasylivka, Yanovshchyna, Dykanka, Myrhorod, Poltava, as well as the original interior of the building of the Poltava provincial zemstvo, built in 1903 - 1908 according to the project of the famous architect and artist Vasyl Krychevskyi (1873-1952).
The Poltava Art Museum (Art Gallery) named after Mykola Yaroshenko has in its collection a bibliographic rarity - an album of artistic phototypes and heliogravures dedicated to the memory of Mykola Gogol - "Gogol on the Motherland" (Poltava, 1902). The museum also houses some photos taken by Khmelevskyi and his own photographic objects.
In 2016, the people of Poltava honored the memory of Jozef Khmelevskyi by unveiling a memorial plaque on the building where his photography workshop was located, at 20 Sobornosti Street.
The material was prepared by Maryna Fedorova,researcher of the scientific mass and exhibition department Poltava Art Museum (Art Gallery) named after Mykola Yaroshenko
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