The Darkest Winter
(2023)
As Russian strikes on the Ukrainian electric grid and civilian infrastructure continue, Ukrainians find a way to adjust their lives to a new reality.
Animal rescue in the time of war
(2022)
Abandoned and lost pets are unaccounted-for victims of the war in Ukraine. A wide network of volunteers is trying to save every life.
Ukrainian Cyber Volunteers
(2022)
Everyday tens of thousands of volunteers turn on their devices, log in, and grind attempting to move Ukraine closer to victory, one digit at a time.
Disabled residents of Eastern Ukrainian town feel trapped
(2022)
The frontline city of Bakhmut is destroyed beyond recognition. Only a small portion of its population remains. Those who have stayed are either the most vulnerable or most desperate. Often it’s both. And among them are the disabled residents of Bakhmut.
Coming Home
(2022)
The Russian Army retreated from the Kyiv region leaving behind towns and villages in ruins, communities and families torn apart. And as Ukrainians slowly start to return to their homes, many are finding them destroyed or damaged. These are the stories of people coming home to liberated towns around Kyiv that are now facing a dilemma on how to rebuild their homes and restore their lives.
War Babies of Kyiv
(2022)
A theater troupe opening their drapes, not for a play but to host people arriving in Lviv running away from the atrocities brought to their homes by the invading Russian Army.
Lviv Theater is now a Refugee Hostel
(2022)
A theater troupe opening their drapes, not for a play but to host people arriving in Lviv running away from the atrocities brought to their homes by the invading Russian Army.
Right to Defend, Right to Resist
(2022)
Ukraine has a troubled past on its way to statehood. Even though the nation can claim its fair share as a participant in shaping the history of Europe, it has had very little time to enjoy its independence. The country has been invaded and reinvaded for centuries, often passing between empires. Ukrainians endured a wide variety of tyrants and now holds its breath as it faces down another.
Eight years ago, before Russia had occupied and annexed Crimea and stirred conflict in Donbas, the most Eastern region of Ukraine, most of the Ukrainian population felt cautiously optimistic about its giant Northern neighbor. Not many Ukrainians believed that Russia would enter into an armed conflict with their country. After eight years of hybrid warfare and open aggression, the opinions of Ukrainians have drastically shifted.
Ukrainian Railroad Ladies
(2020)
Ukrainian Railroad Ladies is a series of portraits of people who work as traffic controllers and safety officers at railroad crossings in Ukraine. They spend their long shifts in the little houses built along the tracks specifically for them. It’s a series that studies Ukrainian rural and suburban landscapes where the exteriors of these railroad houses play a prominent role. It's looking into the intimate details of the interiors and invites the viewer to meet the Railroad Ladies themselves. This project is also an exploration of why this profession still exists in the 21st century, given the almost full automatization of railroad crossings in Ukraine and around the world. It’s a study of the anthropological and social aspects of this profession and the role and importance of the railroad in general in Ukraine.
The country has been consumed by political turmoil: a war in the East and loss of its territory to an aggressive neighbor, never mind the endless corruption and permanently troubled economy. In Ukraine, people pay little attention to the women they see from a train window, standing and most often holding a folded yellow flag (a sign to the train engineer that all is well on the tracks ahead).
And although the country and the world are consumed with much larger issues, the people with folded yellow flags play a big, yet silent role in Ukrainian every day life.
In the storm, it’s often hard to see the lighthouse. Ukrainian Railroad Ladies are that lighthouse. They are a symbol of certain things in this country that don’t change, standing firm in the present as a defiant nod to the past. Unfazed by the passing of trains and time, they are here to stay.
Honorably Deported
(2020)
Immigrants have been in the ranks of various branches of the U.S. Military since the Revolutionary War. And historically it has been a common path for many immigrants to come to this country to obtain their citizenship or to get a foothold in the United States through serving in the military. However, those veterans who have been convicted of a crime after return to civilian life often face a different reality - deportation to their birth country.
The convictions that started deportation procedures for those deported were mostly related to substance abuse, drug-related offenses or violence. Most of the deported veterans reportedly suffered from PTSD related illnesses. Once veterans are deported to their country of origin it is significantly harder for them to access the VA benefits, impossible to get any medical treatment under VA, they are left to their own devices in often unfamiliar surroundings. Common issues include not being able to find housing, acquire basic living necessities, inability to socialize in a new environment and not having access to medical care.
Dreamers
(2018)
The rescending of DACA has garnered attention from the media, politicians and activists, but the spotlight has continuously been shifted towards the words of President Trump and the policymakers working beneath him. Meanwhile the people who are affected most by the dissolution of DACA are not often being heard directly. This series explores personal stories of Dreamers coming from various backgrounds, and portrays their lives as first generation Americans facing a new challenge - to remain in the country they know as their home.
Veterans: Faces of World War II
(2016)
Veterans Project is a series of portraits of people who took part in Second World War - the one event in human history that cannot be compared with anything else on the scale of catastrophe, human tragedy, and the degree of impact on the future of our civilization. Every single person who participated in the war, whether they were a soldier or general, prisoner or guard, medical worker or engineer, took part in shaping the image of the world as it is seen and perceived today.
This project aims to look behind the emotional drape of each individual photographed. More than 70 years after the war ended, the photographer strived to analyze and compare the fates of those who survived and are still living. For this project, the photographer traveled to countries most affected by the war, interviewed and took portraits of those who participated in it. The goal was to assemble a mosaic of people who at one moment were all engaged in this incredible tragedy, and in the other, living their separate lives in different corners of our planet.
What is Burning Man?
(2015)
Every year roughly 70,000 people descent on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to create a temporary city for the length of the Burning Man event. The event itself, and the temporary environment it is created in are widely misunderstood and categorized differently among the people who attend and participate and of those who have never been. This series tries to answer the simple question.
DobroVoltsy
(2014)
Добро – [д о б р о] {n} – [d o b r o] noun – : morally good forces or influences.
Воля – [в о л я] {f} – [v o l j a] noun – : A deliberate or fixed desire or intention.
Conflict in Eastern Ukraine is unique for many reasons. One of the most astonishing aspects of the beginning of this war was that the most powerful and willing force of the Ukrainian defense were so-called Volunteer Battalions. Annexation of Crimea happened shortly after the end of Maidan Revolution and the Russian backed separation of the Eastern regions quickly followed. The country weakened by years of corruption and the recent violent change of power, was not ready for the war.
That was the time when the Volunteer Battalions were born. Under-equipped, untrained, with weak government support and an obscure legal status they formed into groups, named themselves, found leaders and headed East to join the war.
Most of the newcomers never had anything to do with military and might have not imagined what they are about to face. Some were fueled by the recent events of Maidan and desire to continue the fight for their country. Coming from various social upbringings, age, gender and nationality - they were the driving force in the beginning of the conflict and quite possible, to this time.
This project tries to look at and understand the individuals that volunteered to defend their country; out the good will and from their perspective, for the greater good.
Forgotten Village
(2009)
Almost wenty years ago, time has stopped in many small industrial towns in Eastern Ukraine. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the mining industry halted: the massive closure of already outdated and under-performing coal-mines destroyed the remainder of stability in these communities. A new opportunities supported by a hope for the new capitalist future caused many of the younger people seek theire fortune elsewhere as many of them decided to leave their homes in search of a better life.
Those who stayed behind were incapsulated in a new reality that became norm in which an old structure and ideology were cast aside, and a new one never came to replace it. Some mines were taken over, modernized and put back to work often benefiting the new olygarhy. But much of former industrial might of Donbass was left unattendedand and illegal mining filled in the void. Lack of social protection for the miners often led to health problems that would manifest themselves toward the end of their career, at which point most often than not they would be left on their own devices. Most men working in mines don’t make it past their 60’s birthday.
Prison Theater
(2005)
Here at one of the penal colonies in Kharkiv, Ukraine there is depressing view of endless gray walls with barbwire on the background of even grayer sky. Time has ceased to exist within these walls. It's difficult to imagine that people would attempt to seek out something uplifting within the small reality tucked into that of another. But human nature will keep you from dropping your head completely and even when caught in the deepest shaft we can find the strength to seek out traces of light.
In the fall of 2005 I documented a group of prisoners who, with the support from one of the local theaters, made an effort to organize a theatrical troupe and stage a play. The play was written by Jonathan Swift long time ago in Ireland and has very little to do with prison reality in Ukraine of 2005. It was extremely moving to observe the inmates mastering acting transitioning from prison slang to calling one another sir and lord, from wearing drab uniforms to donning wigs and bright costumes; as they transform, rehearsing and then performing for the crowd of their inmates and guards.