Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Markian Surmach
Occupation: Owner, Surma - The Ukrainian Shop
Location: 7th Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square
Time: 5 pm on Friday, May 10.

This store was founded in 1918 by my grandfather, who came through Ellis Island in 1910. The neighborhood was very different. It was very Eastern European and more solidly Ukrainian than it is now.

I was born in this neighborhood and lived here until I was 6, when we moved up to Rockland Country. And I moved back here when I was 18 for college and such. But because of the shop here and being a child in this family you were recruited to work every free moment that you had. Me and my sister spent almost every weekend in the shop growing up. So I was always in and out of the city most of the time.

I moved to Colorado for 15 years and lived a very different life. The objective of some people who live here is how to get out, so I moved and then I was brought back in again. My dad passed away [in 2003] and I got the call, “Okay, what are we gonna do now,” so I came back. I live a couple blocks away now. Moving back has been an adjustment but I love New York and I love the shop.

In the beginning the store catered to those who didn’t speak a lick of English, to help them assimilate into New York life. My grandfather was catering to people who needed virtually everything. It was like a PC Richards, in a way. The old Gramophone that’s up in the corner of the shop was cutting-edge technology at the time. That’s what he was selling. He even sold washing machines. You name it and he was selling it — everything that people needed to live in New York.

Over time, as people started settling in, the older generation wanted the younger generation to have a connection to the Ukraine. So then we started carrying things from the Ukraine to help keep that connection. And it’s just kind of continued from there. We ship a lot of things from there.

The store has moved now toward the arts-and-crafts route. We sell a lot of Easter Eggs that are very elaborate and intricately done. They’re called Easter Eggs because that’s kind of an Americanization of it, but they’re traditionally called Pysanka in Ukrainian, which means “to Write.” We sell lots of nicknacks and we still ship things from the Ukraine.

We get a lot of our clothing from Romania. My father started doing this back when the Soviet Union was not a friendly place. He started importing all these blouses from Romania because of the economic and political status in the Ukraine. Also, during the 60s and 70s and maybe the 80s, there were a lot of big-name people who shopped here, everybody from Jim Morrison to Led Zeppelin, the Mamas & the Papas, Judy Collins, and Donatella Versace did a big spread with our blouses. We’ve catered to the bohemian theme rather than just being Ukrainian, per se. People who shop here now are the ones who are looking for something different rather than just for something Ukrainian.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

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Editor's note: The 37th annual Ukrainian Festival on East Seventh Street is scheduled for this coming Friday-Sunday.