Yelyzaveta Pyvovarova is looking for happiness in her portraits. It’s a feeling she’s been trying to recapture in Alexandria since leaving Ukraine after the outbreak of the ongoing war with Russia.
Lyza, as she’s formally known, escaped from Oleksandriya, Ukraine, with her two daughters shortly after the war broke out, and moved to the Alexandria area of Fairfax County in July of 2022. Her husband later joined the family, and since then she launched her own portrait photography business and manages events for ALX Community in Old Town.
“I think in my life, I don’t have enough good emotions,” Lyza told ALXnow. “I sometimes get jealous of my clients, because I’m trying to get what they have, and I’m working hard to get it. I might not have the money or the time, but every chance I get I’m sending care packages back home to my family in Ukraine.”
Lyza specializes in headshots and family portraits. She started taking pictures professionally in 2019, was sidelined by the pandemic, and relaunched her photography career last year. She said that she and her family fled when it became too dangerous, that she and her daughters stayed briefly with family in Cyprus before a friend in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County offered to let them stay at their house.
“I decided to do photography as something that can bring me joy,” Lyza said. “It’s something creative that’s not about work or money, and for me it’s about finding the beauty in something else.”
Every morning, she says, she calls family and friends back home in Ukraine.
“When I wake up, I call someone who is available, my mom or my husband’s mom, or my cousin or my brother or his wife, or to my friends that I have left there, anybody who is not at work that moment or can respond,” she said. “Every morning, I just talk to them.”
Lyza said she’s unsure about going back home when the war is over. Her father died soon after she left, and she wonders if she can be happy back in her home country.
“I don’t know if I can be happy there,” Lyza said. “It’s been so difficult to build life here and find my place here, it’s like starting a new life again. Maybe just for this moment, for today, I’m just not ready yet. But I do imagine going back and walking around and seeing my friends.”
Lyza said that her favorite photos are candid shots of families with children, and headshots.
“Most of the work that I’m doing has been headshots and events,” she said. “I used to take wedding pictures in Ukraine, but I didn’t like that part where a lot of relatives stand in a group and pose. What I love is photos of the way that the couple are looking at each other, when they just started their life together. That’s very special.”
