While she lived in Paris, Yablonska made friends in the Parisian art scene. Among them was Stepan Levynsky,[1] an orientalist and fellow Ukrainian migrant.[2] Levynsky convinced Yablonska to become a photo reporter and to travel the world.[7] Her career would take her to Morocco, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, Java, Bali, Tahiti, Australia, the United States, and Canada.[8] Through the 1930s, she published stories about her travels in Galician magazines[9] such as Women's Fate [uk] (Ukrainian: Жіноча доля) and New Home [uk] (Ukrainian: Нова хата).[3] Yablonska's work and travels made her one of the first women documentary cinematographers.[5] A recurring theme of her work was the negative effects of European colonialism on local culture and her own difficulties with Western Europeans.[9][10]