Stolen Spring

Stolen spring is a stolen life. Each photograph is a personal tragedy, but it is also a life-affirming story of a survivor, a hope that Ukraine will rise from the ruins.
At the beginning of 2022 Russian troops occupied and destroyed parts of the Kyiv region, including Bucha and Irpin, where I live and work. The war scenes became my immediate reality and routine. My second hometown is associated with mass murder, atrocities and war crimes committed by Russia. After Russia troops withdrew only in Bucha 458 bodies have been recovered, including 9 children. Every day I see people who are rebuilding their homes and their lives from the ruins and looking into the future. 
I created a series of photographs in a historical dialogue with images by Polish photographer Michael Nash, who used his own decorative backdrop to mask Poland‘s World War II ruins while shooting a portrait of a woman in 1946. 
Women who survived the Russian aggression, including myself, are depicted in my photographs. The occupation continued in the spring, people who lived through this tragic period did not notice how spring passed, how chestnuts and lilies of the valley bloomed, birds flew in. They were deprived not only of their homes, loved ones, work, health, but also part of their lives. For the IDPs from Donbass and Crimea it was the second tragic spring.