The book ‘13 Stories of War’ includes 13 visual essays by Ukrainian photographers and artists. The team positions the presented works as the authors’ response to the full-scale invasion and an alternative to the conventional narratives that are spread in the media.
‘‘13 Stories of War’ is a thoughtful exploration of the multifaceted dimensions of war, fostering a deeper understanding of the shared human experience in times of adversity’. The projects featured in the book are described by the authors as ‘dealing with themes of resistance, loss, and hope, that provide a better understanding of the challenges and experiences faced by individuals living through war’.
Among the authors are Evgeniy Maloletka, Dmytro Kozatskyi, Sasha Kurmaz, Julia Kochetova, Yana Kononova, Yelyzaveta Bukrieieva, Roman Pashkovskiy, Olena Hrom, Sergiy Polezhaka, Alexander Glyadyelov, Olya Koval, Viacheslav Ratynskyi and Roman Bordun.
‘To emphasize the immediacy and authenticity of the stories’, the images are combined with texts by the photographers.
‘Through our collaboration with Misha Pedan, co-editor of the book, our goal was to highlight the authors’ personal ties to the moments they captured in these projects. Despite the backdrop of ongoing military violence, these documentary photographers and artists have been courageously sharing the realities of Ukraine with the world, — Emine Ziyatdinova, co-editor of the book and co-founder of Ukrainian Warchive, says. — For me, as a photo editor, these powerful photo stories epitomize the resilience and resistance of Ukrainians’.
The author of the foreword for the book is Swedish photojournalist Paul Hansen.
‘The stories and testimonies in this book are not only photographs. They are beautiful, brutal, present and personal — photographic adjectives filled with content, — Hansen says. — Most news photography can’t ever even hope to be that. But perhaps most importantly, they are historical documents, visual evidence to be presented in the future, where the fog of war has cleared and justice once again prevails’.
The project was supported by the Austrian Institute for Human Sciences as part of the Documenting Ukraine program, the Hasselblad Foundation and the Swedish Institute.
You can purchase the book in the bookstore Zbirka for 2200 UAH.
Ukrainian Warchive is a digital archive that collects and preserves photos by photographers documenting russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The aim of the project is to protect the photographic heritage and memory of the war and to support Ukrainian photographers documenting the events in Ukraine.
The Strategic Media Support Program project implements the Lviv Media Forum with financial support from People in Need (PIN) and Pioneer Foundation.
