13 Stories of War: Ukrainian photographers document and reflect on the Russian invasion

About Alena GromAlexander GlyadyelovDmytro KozatskyiEvgeniv MaloletkaJulia KochetovaLisa BukreyevaRoman PashkovskiySasha KurmazSergii PolezhakaYana Kononova

Julia Kochetova 30 Ukrainian photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Game-changer troubled daughter and sometimes punk. Based in Kyiv. Studied journalism at Taras Shevchenko National University (UA) and Mohyla School of Journalism (UA) participated in IDFA academy (NL). As a freelancer Kochetova covered the Maidan revolution (2013-2014) the annexation of Crimea (2014) and the Russia-Ukraine war (2014-now). Personally describes herself as a representative of the revolution&war generation.  Kochetova focuses on firsthand storytelling as a method researching topics of the war generation post-traumatic stress disorder and feminism. She works in mixed media: poetry documentaries music and stills. She prefers freelancing during the whole professional path. Regular contributor for Der Spiegel Vice News Zeit Bloomberg The Guardian and others. World Press Photo winner Emmy Award awardee (2023 Outstanding Continuing News Coverage: Long Form with VICE News Tonight). With an academic background in engineering and social sciences culminating in a PhD in sociology Yana Kononova transitioned to artistic practice at a mature stage. She hails from Pirallahi island and the Apsheron peninsulathe region of the Caspian Sea culturally shaped by oil and gas extraction and known for its mud volcanoes. Natural gas seeps were ignited to create eternal fires in Zoroastrian temples. Later her family migrated to Ukraine due to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. In 2019 Kononova won the Bird in Flight Prize in Emerging Photography and in 2022 she was honored with the Hariban Award presented by Benrido. Currently she is furthering her education through the Art & Curatorial Practice program at the New Center for Research & Practice (USA). Kononova's practice centers on ecocritical investigations delving into the historical gendering of landscapes reframing the Romantic tropes and metaphors and exploring techno-geographical imagination. Her work delves into ways of thinking and navigating through milieus with alien temporalities while examining the materiality inherent in the photographic medium. Using medium and large-format analog cameras she aims to achieve the tactility she seeks in images residing on the threshold between the sensitivity of the photographic surface and the act of representation.  Evgeniy Maloletka is a Ukrainian war photographer journalist and filmmaker who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014. He has also covered the Euromaidan Revolution the protests in Belarus the Nagorno-Karabakh war and the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. In February and March 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine the Associated Press staff member Mstyslav Chernov Evgeniy Maloletka a freelancer working for AP and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko stayed in Mariupol which was encircled by the Russian troops under siege and extensively bombed whereas the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defense Ministry claimed that Russia only targets military installations. Maloletka were among the few journalists international journalists in Mariupol during that period and their photographs were extensively used by Western media to cover the situation. On 11 March they were in a hospital taking photos when they were taken out of the city with the assistance of Ukrainian soldiers. They managed to escape from Mariupol unharmed. In 2022 his work during the siege of Mariupol has been recognized with the Knight International Journalism Award the Visa dor News Award and the Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie World Press Photo. He has also received awards from Italy Germany Norway and United States. Evgeniy is part of the production team behind Mstyslav Chernovs documentary film20 Days in Mariupol which won best documentary Oscar and Best Documentary BAFTA Film Awards in 2024. Lisa Bukreyeva (born 1993) is a documentary photographer based in Kyiv. She started her career in photography in 2019. Her work explores Ukrainian life youth culture. Since the Russian invasion her camera turned into documentation of the war and events affecting her community. Lisa is a member of Burn My Eye collective. Her award-winning work was exhibited internationally including: 2022 Photo Elysée Lausanne Switzerland 2022 Noorderlicht Groningen Netherlands 2022 Deichtor Hallen Internationale Kunst Und Fotographie Hamburg Germany 2022 PEP Kommunale Galerie Berlin Germany 2021 BIAYSTOK INTERPHOTO FESTIVAL 2020 ICP Concerned New York USA. Roman Pashkovskiy is Ukrainian photographer based in Kyiv. He studied photography at the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. Before full-scale invasion Roman mostly worked in fashion and commercial photographer. His photos were published in Vogue Ukraine Esquire Ukraine Forbes Ukraine ELLE Ukraine Harpers Bazaar Ukraine Marie Claire Ukraine Viva PF KIKA-Style. He shot for fashion brands like Poustovit Litkovskaya Bevza Bekh Elena Burenina Ds'dress RCR Khomenko Its me suitster.com and worked on advertising campaigns for Pepsi Kyivstar Sadochok Kimberly Clark Luxoptika MakeUp Lipton. Since 2002 Roman works on multiple personal project documenting Russo-Ukrainian war. His work was supported by Ukrainian Warchive and Institute for Human Science (IWM) within Documentarian Ukraine project. Ukrainian artist and documentary photographer Alena Grom was born in Donetsk. In April 2014 she was forced to leave her hometown due to military events in Eastern Ukraine. Since 2017 she has lived in Bucha a town outside of Kyiv.  As a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022 Alena and her family became refugees for the second time but returned after the de-occupation of Bucha. These events significantly affected her artistic practice. Photography became a salvation and a way to deal with the traumatic reality of war. Since 2016 Alena Groms work has focused on places affected by military aggression. Her lens captures victims of the war migrants and refugees and war-torn Ukraine at large. However her photographs are not illustrations of pity or grief. Life in spite of everything is one of the main themes of the artist. Alena Groms projects have been exhibited extensively in Ukraine and internationally and recognised by a number of international photography awards including: LensCulture Portrait Awards 2023/ Finalist; 2022 Tokyo International Foto Awards / Prize Gold ; International Photography Awards Best of Show 2022 by this years curator; Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3). Sergii Polezhaka is a director producer and documentary photographer. After years of experience in visual journalism and graduating from the Danish School of Media and Journalism in 2016 he co-founded New Cave Media studio where he switched to immersive 360/VR storytelling as a director and producer. In early 2017 he directed No Hero the first 360° web-doc in Ukraine. Sergii managed his company while producing new projects for media outlets such as RFE/RL and The New York Times NGOs including UNICEF GIZ WWF and commercial clients like Mitsubishi Motorola Ukraine and Array Inc.  In 2017 New Cave Media received a Journalism 360 Challenge Grant for their project Aftermath VR: Euromaidan where Sergii directed an interactive storyline. The project tells the story of the cold morning of 20/02/2014 when police forces killed 47 protesters in Kyiv which was a turning point of the EuroMaidan protests. Aftermath VR won the Open Frame Award' at goEast Film Festival and was selected for the Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2019.  In 2021 Sergii transitioned into the field of Product IT as a team leader. He managed the Content R&D team at the startup Headway where he launched and scaled the content production for new educational products. In 2022 after the russian invasion of Ukraine Sergii returned to war journalism primarily collaborating with the media from the Axel Springer group. As an independent storyteller Sergii is currently working on the visual project 'Naive Ukrainian Gardens' where he shows the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war through the lens of Ukrainian gardens exploring the intricate relationships between private and collective responsibility memory and trauma. Filmography: Aftermath VR: Euromaidan (2019) (director) Personal exhibitions: Bridges of Donbas (Izone 2016) Dmytro Oleksandrovych Kozatskyi is a Ukrainian photographer serviceman senior soldier and fighter of the Azov Battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine. He was awarded the Medal For Military Service to Ukraine. Sasha Kurmaz was born in Kyiv Ukraine where he currently lives and works. He graduated from the Design Department at the National Academy of Culture and Arts in Kyiv in 2008 and the Communications Engineering Department at the Kyiv Electromechanical College in 2005. Sasha is an interdisciplinary artist. He uses various media and approaches in his artistic practice such as photography video and performative situations as well as diverse strategies to engage the audience through collaborative practice. He also actively experiments with found and archival images and develops conceptual artists' books. The main focus of his work is social and political issues and global challenges that Ukrainian society has faced in recent years. Kurmaz's works have been widely presented at many international exhibitions and festivals including exhibitions at the Latvian Museum of Photography Deichtorhallen Hamburg Künstlerhaus Vienna Kaunas Photo Festival Akademie der Künste (Berlin) NRW- Forum Düsseldorf Museum Folkwang Athens Photo Festival C/O Berlin Skovde Art Museum Zamek Ujazdowski Format Photo Festival ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art and many others. In 2016 he received the C/O Berlin Talent Award (Germany) and Kazimir Malevich Artist Award in 2020 (Ukraine). Photographer. Since the mid-80s he has been self-educating in photography and has worked as a professional independent photographer since 1989. Glyadelov has worked in Europe Middle Asia Africa and the USA; he has covered armed conflicts in Moldova where he was injured in Nagorny Karabakh in Chechnya and Ukraine where he was injured again. Since 1996 he has focused on long-term documentary photo projects presenting his works in exhibition form. Since 1997 until now Glyadelov has been actively cooperating with the international humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontières. His photographs have been used by such international organisations as MSF HRW the Global Fund UNAIDS UNICEF. His awards include the Grand-Prix of Ukrpressphoto-97 the Hasselblad Award at the European photography competition in Vevey Switzerland Images'98; the Mother Jones 2001 Medal of Excellence at the International Documentary Photography Foundation in San Francisco USA; Moving Walls 2002 by the Open Society Institute (OSI) in New York USA and others. He is the author of more than 30 personal exhibitions in different countries and has published three books. Olia Koval born in Chernihiv Ukraine began photography in 2020. Currently studying at the Cinematography Faculty of Karpenko-Kary she is a member of the MYPH team and works at Zaborona. Her works have been represented by ArtEast Berlin since 2020. She participated in the 2022 Menu Zona Residency in Klaipeda and has pieces exhibited in Odesa Modern Museum and the Grynovs collection. Vyacheslav Ratynskyi (b. 1989) is a Ukrainian freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer. He was born in Zhytomyr. He has been living and working in Kyiv for the last 10 years. Has a masters degree in journalism. As a freelancer he worked with major Ukrainian and foreign publications and agencies such as NV Hromadske Forbes The Guardian Le Monde The New York Times BBC Der Spiegel Reuters among others. His work has been exhibited in Ukraine and internationally. Roman Bordun (born in 1987) is a photographer documentary filmmaker and artist based in Lviv Ukraine. He graduated from the Faculty of civil engineering at the Lviv Polytechnic University. In 2019 he debuted with full-length film The Diviners at Docudays UA and DOK Leipzig festivals.  Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine he has been actively photographing in the de-occupied territories. Paul Hansen is a photojournalist based in Stockholm Sweden. As a staff photographer for the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter his assignments and self-initiated projects take him all over the world as well as just around the corner. In working with multimedia and by also writing his own reportages Paul assume a big journalistic responsibility to great acclaim by his newspapers readership. In covering events whether it is in Haiti Bosnia Afghanistan  or back home in Sweden there is always one common denominator that link his work together; empathy. His visual storytelling has among many domestic and international prizes and honors also awarded him Picture of the year two times and Photographer of the Year in Sweden nine times. He was also awarded Photographer of the year Newspaper in POYi 2010 and 2013 World Press Photo 2012 a second place in Photographer of the year in POYi 2015 and a second place in General News by World Press Photo 2016. In 2017 and 2018 he had two major exhibitions at the Fotografiska museum in Stockholm. In June 2019 he will exhibit his photographs at Sundsvalls museum in Sweden. October 2021 he had an exhibition at Nässjö art-hall. Emine Ziyatdinova is a Crimean Tatar documentary photographer and co-founder and director of the NGO Ukrainian Warchive a digital photo archive of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Born in Uzbekistan her family was deported from Crimea in 1944 by the Stalin regime. Growing up as part of the Crimean Tatar minority in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union she gained a firsthand understanding of the human rights issues faced by ethnic minorities and the challenges stemming from the economic and political transition in her country. Her unique perspective places her at the intersection of documentary photography sociology human rights and journalism. Emine holds MA degrees in sociology from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and in photojournalism from Ohio University's School of Visual Communication. From 2012 to 2017 she worked extensively in documentary photography and journalism in Ukraine before relocating to the UK. There she has contributed her expertise to the non-profit sector working with organizations such as the Rory Peck Trust and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Emine's work was supported by a Fulbright Scholarship and a Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Fellowship. Her photography projects have been showcased in exhibitions both in Ukraine and internationally.