Photos of Everyday Life During Wartime

It is impossible to live in a country at war and remain detached from the changes unfolding around you. Under these conditions, every work of art begins to memorialize, document, and contemplate the war or its aftermath. In moments of critical danger or dramatic upheaval, the existing language of communication often falls short. Language requires new symbols and structures to articulate these unprecedented experiences.

Ukraine is no exception. On February 24, 2022—literally overnight—every photographer, visual artist, and ordinary citizen with a camera became a documentarian of the war, often without training, proper gear, or even a choice in the matter. They became witnesses, transforming their cameras into tools of action and protection.

The beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022 gave rise to a new phase in the evolution of visual artistic language. Everyday life began to change quickly and radically, demanding that artists adapt just as rapidly and document these new realities. There is a desire to capture places and moments that might soon disappear. And there is an urgent need to collect evidence of this unjust war: the aftermath of Russian attacks; the destruction of cities, architectural heritage, and infrastructure; the bodies of killed civilians; torture and interrogation chambers.

An artist and oral and maxillofacial surgeon by training, Vladyslav Krasnoshchok lives in Kharkiv, a city less than 100 kilometers from the Russian border. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Kharkiv has endured daily shelling. Despite the constant danger, Krasnoshchok remains in the city.

He shoots on film and develops the photos himself. The graininess, lack of sharp detail, and monochrome tones create an impression that these images were taken during the Second World War. In peacetime, he often experimented with his photography—painting over photos, creating surreal collages, and incorporating drawings—but over the past three years he has focused exclusively on documentation, without embellishments or visual interventions.

Lviv-based photographer Elena Subach is known for her use of irony and vibrant color. Her surreal collages from the series Grandmothers humorously depict the habits and beliefs of older women in western Ukraine, exaggerating details and accentuating them with a flash. The Hidden project, her first series created during the full-scale war, represents a departure from her previous style. It documents efforts to save architectural and artistic objects in Lviv. Shortly after completing this project, Subach traveled to the Slovak-Ukrainian border, where she created another series: images of chairs scattered along the border, set up as a temporary respite for people fleeing Ukraine. In this body of work, irony and collage are absent. There is only an unembellished documentation of reality. What remains unchanged in her approach is her use of flash, which enhances the vivid colors and illuminates each story she captures.

Kyiv-based photographer Lisa Bukreyeva began her career in street photography, capturing scenes of urban life and focusing on the interplay between composition and color. Her series from 2022, War Diary, is a personal project combining black-and-white photographs with her own textual observations about the changes unfolding around her. Bukreyeva has returned to street photography, but her focus has shifted to stories from shattered and destroyed cities and frontline villages.

As the selections below from these photographers’ work demonstrate, war compels us to rethink our identity and the role of art itself. After three years of full-scale war in Ukraine, artists are beginning to seek a new visual language to articulate new experiences, emotional states, and anxieties. They are shaping a new aesthetic grounded in fear, post-traumatic stress, and daily struggle. This process is only in its infancy. And the war continues.
—Kateryna Radchenko, curator and founder of Odesa Photo Days Festival

Elena Subach

“Hidden documents the efforts to preserve Lviv’s cultural heritage during the war. In the spring of 2022, museum workers and dedicated volunteers evacuated and hid artworks to protect them from potential destruction. I captured this process with my camera. Today, I view this project as a testament to the resilience and determination of people committed to safeguarding their heritage.”

Elena Subach is a visual artist and photographer based in Lviv, Ukraine. She is currently researching the legacy of the photographer and filmmaker Yulian Dorosh and Lviv photography from the first half of the 20th century at the Dorosh Museum.

Vlad Krasnoschok

“I started documenting the war in late March of 2022. Using black-and-white film, I divided the work into thematic categories like destruction, military equipment, soldiers, artillery, field hospitals, prisoners, casualties, animals, and bridges. My goal is to capture these themes comprehensively and compile the best images into a book.”

The Karkiv-based artist Vladyslav Krasnoshchok has been practicing photography since 2008. Since 2010, together with Sergiy Lebedynskyy, Vadim Trykoz, and Oleksiy Sobolev, he has been a member of the Shilo group.

Lisa Bukreyeva

“When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, I realized that I no longer distinguished one day from another. Everything merged into one long moment, and I began keeping a textual and visual diary. It helped me structure the world and my feelings.”

The Kyiv-based artist Lisa Bukreyeva has published her photographs in Spiegel, Zeit, Financial Times, Le Monde, Liberation, Camera Austria, New York, and other publications. She was a nominee for the 2023 Foam Paul Huf Award.