A Road East

My journey to Ukraine began in 2011 with a road trip to Kremenchuk, a city in the Poltava region that lies geographically and culturally between the country’s east and west. What started as a visit to relatives soon developed into deep and lasting friendships.

In the winter of 2014, shortly before the escalation of the Euromaidan protests, I returned for a semester project. My focus was not on the overt political turmoil. Instead, through my camera, I searched for the private within the political: moments of everyday life, closeness, and the ways my friends navigated a growing sense of uncertainty. Above all, it was a desire to be with them and to bear witness to this time.

My analog photographs capture this in-between period. Their grainy aesthetic amplifies the contrast between the wintery heaviness of the cities, the dominant Soviet-era architecture, and the sense of warmth created by evening lights. The images portray familiar people and landscapes, immersed in a seemingly peaceful stillness, even as tensions in the country were already palpable beneath the surface.

After a final visit in 2016, Ukraine is no longer accessible to me in this way. The present reality of war has made such journeys by car impossible.