Episode 10 of my irregular photo journal - I honestly don’t know
My first experience with the war in Ukraine happened in 2018. Back then the war has been going on for four years and it has been getting slowly forgotten by the majority of the people not in the country. The photo series along with the article I wrote is called The Forgotten War. My last visit to the frontline town of Avdiivka happened in January 2019. I spent two weeks on a covert base of a volunteer battalion mostly just living their lives in freezing winter. The essay from that trip is called The Frozen War.
Both of those trips were done during my paid leave from work. I am by no means a professional photojournalist. I wouldn’t consider myself a “hobbyist” either though. I can’t quite put a finger on the reason why but photographing and telling these stories is something I just have to do. It is quite possibly one of the only few activities during which I do not feel like I’m wasting my time on this planet.
Well, I’m planning on driving to either Ukraine or at least the border in a week. But I am kind of lost when it comes to what to cover. There are much better photojournalists with much more comprehensive networks currently working in the country and at the borders. They can spend as much time there as they need. I on the other hand have six days. That includes the ten-hour drive each way. What difference can I make? I’ve been watching the news, following Twitter and reading up since before the invasion on the 24th of February. But I still have no idea what to cover there and frankly, the imposter syndrome is slowly showing its teeth. I just know one thing. I have to go and I have to do this. I would feel useless if I didn’t. It’s a calling so don’t try to get me to explain it to you.
I hope I can figure it out either before I get there or as soon as I do. It’s not going to be cheap and I can’t really have a do-over of I screw it up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
In the meantime, I’ve got some acquaintances and friends already on the ground since day one. Here are some of them and the links to their Instagram accounts if you want to see what is going on in the country.
Eric Bouvet - A french photographer and one of the teachers from the war photography course I took back in 2017. He’s currently in the frontline town of Irpin.
JB Russel - Another teacher from the aforementioned course. Currently covering what is happening on the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Emma Francis - A fellow student from the course who’s spent some time in Lviv. Not sure of her current whereabouts, but if you follow her, she’s pretty active there.
Ray Baseley - A Czech reporter currently in Odessa which is awaiting an assault at the time of this blog post.
Flip Mattia - A documentary photographer and a humanitarian who’s been helping refugees for as long as I’ve known him. Definitely deserves a follow.
There are many more and I’m sorry if I’ve left somebody out.
To end this episode the usual way here are some images I took today with the X70.
