Unlike her contemporaries, she spoke with the voice of the “second sex” from the “second world” and her literary and documentary works, The Charm of Morocco (1932), From the Land of Rice and Opium (1936), and Distant Horizons (1939), still speak uniquely, not only about the quirks of non-European cultures, but also about the diversity and polyphony of Europe itself, not limited to its center.

By coming up against other cultures, Yablonska approached the very limits of language, approached what can be experienced, but not described. It is no coincidence that her texts were accompanied by dozens of her photographs, which she risked her life for more than once. She was helped in this by her own atypical position—her awareness of herself as a European and representative of Western culture associated with a position of strength and power, and at the same time, as a Ukrainian, a representative of a subjugated and oppressed people.

She managed to go beyond the “oriental trap,” egocentrism, and ethnocentrism. People from different cultures and social groups will appear in her photographs and film chronic made during her travels. They will be depicted feeding a child or cooking, during street trading or forest bathing, in everyday life or during a holiday. Mostly they will look directly into the lens of the movie camera, with interest or approval.