Brotherland: War in Ukraine

Brotherland exhibition at the Sumy City Gallery. Sumy, Ukraine. August 2018.

Brotherland exhibition at the Sumy City Gallery. Sumy, Ukraine. August 2018.

The funeral of Elena Ott. Starovarvarivka, Ukraine. May 2014.

Nadezhda Panasyk, 75, in the stairwell of her apartment building near Donetsk airport. Donetsk, Ukraine. October 2014.

The Shcheglovskaya coal mine. Makiivka, Ukraine. March 2016.

New recruits of the St. Mary's Battalion. Mariupol, Ukraine. February 2015.

A girl being evacuated due to fighting. Avdiivka, Ukraine. February 2017.

A fighter for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. Gorlovka, Ukraine. January 2015.

Debris from the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Grabovo, Ukraine. July 2014.

Children at school #68 practice safely hiding in case of shelling. Mariupol, Ukraine. January 2015.

Residents of a front-line neighborhood. Donetsk, Ukraine. July 2014.

Local residents observe the site of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Grabovo, Ukraine. July 2014.

Debris from shelling in a residential neighborhood. Donetsk, Ukraine. July 2014.

Ukrainian soldiers in the snow. Pavlopil, Ukraine. March 2016.

After the battle. Debaltseve, Ukraine. February 2015.

Underground at the Shcheglovskaya Coal Mine. Makiivka, Ukraine. March 2016.

Free soup is served to those in need. Donetsk, Ukraine. October 2014.

A Ukrainian ambulance driver wounded by shelling. Debaltseve, Ukraine. February 2015.

Captured Ukrainian soldiers before a prisoner exchange. Novotoshkivske, Ukraine. February 2015.

Aleksandr Zaytsev, right, whose wife and son were killed by shelling over the summer. Donetsk, Ukraine. February 2015.

Raya Shaporova, 70. Spartak, Ukraine. April 2017.

Residents of eastern Ukraine displaced by the war. Kharkiv, Ukraine. February 2015.

Passengers on a tram. Donetsk, Ukraine. April 2017.

A fighter for the Donetsk People's Republic. Zaitseve, Ukraine. March 2016.

The clothing of passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 scattered on the ground following the plane’s crash. Grabovo, Ukraine. July 2014.

Sergei Korotun warms up before partaking in his daily health ritual of bathing in the icy local reservoir. Karlivka, Ukraine. February 2016.

Circus performer Aleksei Medianikov. Donetsk, Ukraine. April 2017.

Civilian casualty from shelling. Donetsk, Ukraine. January 2015.

Ukraine in a Time of War, a self-published newspaper.
Self-published newspaper/catalog (available here)

Watching 360º videos at Brotherland exhibition at the Sumy City Gallery. Sumy, Ukraine. August 2018.
360º video from the village of Grabovo, Donetsk oblast, eastern Ukraine. The site where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed.
360º video from school #68 in Mariupol, Donetsk oblast, eastern Ukraine.

360º video from the village of Starovarvarivka, Donetsk oblast, eastern Ukraine. The grave of Elena Ott.
Traveling exhibition consisting of 26 photographs, three 360º videos, and a self-published newspaper.
Artist Statement
Since shortly after protests in Kyiv drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014, eastern Ukraine has been convulsed by a Russia-backed separatist insurgency that evolved into a full-fledged war centered in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, an industrial region known as Donbass.
After nearly five years, the war grinds on, stuck in an uneasy stalemate while delivering a steady stream of death and injury. For civilians living near the line of contact, conflict is like the weather, an uncontrollable fact of life that shapes—but does not define—one’s day-to-day existence. Everyone continues their business as best they can with a practiced sense of normalcy, having adapted all too easily.
For soldiers on both sides, enthusiasm for the cause, whether fueled by patriotism or propaganda, is tempered by the toil and terror of survival. They too can be considered victims, consigned by duty to their fate.
I’ve been photographing the war, and civilian life surrounding it, since its early days in April 2014, one of very few photographers to have continually worked on both government and non-government controlled territory. My portrayal emphasizes the incongruous absurdity inherent in armed conflict, the shock of the unimaginable juxtaposed with the utterly mundane. War is full of contradictions; to pretend otherwise serves only its continuation.
If anything is clear, it is that war is real, and it can happen anywhere.
З того часу, як протести у Києві усунули від влади президента Віктора Януковича у лютому 2014 року, Східну Україну сколихнуло сепаратистське повстання за російської підтримки, що переросло у повноцінну війну в Донецькій та Луганській областях, промисловому регіоні відомому під назвою Донбас.
Через майже п'ять років війна не стихає, навіть зайшовши у глухий кут, приносячи нові й нові смерті та поранення. Для мирних жителів, які живуть біля контактної лінії або на непідконтрольній Україні території, конфлікт - це як погода, некерована реальність життя, яка формує повсякденне існування. Кожен найкращим чином продовжує свою справу з відтренованим почуттям нормальності.
Для солдатів з обох сторін, ентузіазм воювати, підживлений чи то пропагандою, чи патріотизмом, стримується виснажливою працею та жахами виживання.
Я фотографував війну та мирне життя навколо неї, починаючи з перших днів у квітні 2014 року, і був одним з небагатьох фотографів, які постійно працювали з обох сторін. Моя картина підкреслює безглузду абсурдність властиву збройному конфлікту, потрясіння від немислимого зіставлене з абсолютно повсякденним. Якщо щось і зрозуміло, так це те, що війна реальна, і може статися де завгодно.