For some, moving to a new country halfway across the world is isolating and scary. For Tatiana Savchenko, it was inspiring.
The 21-year-old amateur photographer moved to Bellevue from Ukraine last fall with her husband. After a few years of trying to convince herself of choosing a more stable, economical career, Savchenko found herself in a new culture, new mentality and decided to follow her passion: photography.
“Something changed inside of me,” she said.
While visiting Bellevue City Hall for the first time with the her class from the nonprofit English Language Learners Alliance, she was struck by the city employees’ goals, hobbies and general openness. She turned to Diversity Outreach and Engagement Administrator Mark Manuel with an idea: portraits of city employees to help citizens learn about their civic leaders and organizers.
“It’s nice to know something about the people in your government,” Savchenko said. “In [Ukraine], they’re very closed. They don’t like to connect to people. Here, it’s so different. The government here wants to build a bridge between people and them.”
Savchenko photographed everyone from the Fire Department’s community risk reduction specialist to the director of utilities to the arts manager in the Planning and Community Development department. Along with her portraits, she interviewed each subject about their jobs, goals and personal passions.
Civic Services Coordinator Heidi Fox wanted to be a fighter pilot and served in the U.S. Air Force for four years, while Bellevue Police Captain Carl Kleinknecht enjoys riding the trails along the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon. Arts Manager Joshua Heim may or may not be an award-winning hula dancer and chanter, he told Savchenko.
The project was also personal for Savchenko — she used the portrait project not only as a way to learn about Bellevue, but also to practice her English.
“The first shoot I did was terrible. I didn’t know what to say to relax [my subject],” she said. “But every time got better and better. I’m feeling more confident and now I’m joking with my subjects. The City Hall staff really helped me. My first City Hall subject was actually joking and making me calm.”
Integrating into another culture and learning another language has been challenging, she said.
Especially during her first months in the U.S., she felt people looked at her as if she wasn’t an equal because she couldn’t understand them.
Those perceptions are especially common with women who accompany their husbands to the area for jobs at Microsoft or other large companies, she said.
“A lot of people think these women are just here with their husbands. They end up sitting at home, afraid to go out and learn English, and just end up having babies as a ‘project’ to give them purpose. It’s not my way, to sit at home,” Savchenko said. “I think it’s actually a big problem with a lot of people coming here from other countries. For a lot of the women — they’re stuck here without a job or friends. I’m a really lucky one.”
As she nears the one year anniversary of her move, the horizon looks bright to Savchenko.
She now works as a volunteer City Hall photographer and is planning another photography project, this one highlighting the diversity in the community.
“It was a pleasant surprise to see how the project turned out and how the opportunity just grew organically,” Manuel said. “We have so much untapped talent here in Bellevue and we want to make sure that people find ways to give back to the community they call home. It has been a pleasure to work with Tatiana and her work is fantastic.”
