Extrait de 10 images - Vue d'exposition (fictive).
I lived between Paris and Kyiv from 2020 till 2022.
"Amitiés de Kyiv" was shot in January-February 2024, in Kyiv.
I went back to Ukraine with no intention of showing or talking about the war explicitly. My only goal was to spend time with friends, to show physical, flesh-and-blood support, beyond the Instagram message.
The atmosphere in Kyiv is psychologically heavy. We feel confinement, routine and fear. And at the same time, there is unprecedented creativity and solidarity.
Without staging or artifice, I photographed my Ukrainian friends who are now being forced to mobilise.
I simplified the photographic process as much as possible, mixing portraits and symbolic elements together. The black and white emphasizes the dramatic nature of the situation, but leaves space for hope, symbolized by the light and contrast.
After visiting Kyiv in February 2024, I asked myself the following question : do my Ukrainian friends have to become soldiers to be seen as legitimate defenders of their country?
And does defending Ukrainian independence and integrity necessarily mean taking up weapons?
The portrait approach I chose is a way of interpreting the themes of violence and trauma with dignity and respect, making them appear as heroes rather than victims.
Symbols of War
Shelter
War Trophy
Russian Bullet
Territory
Vlad's portrait was made in Kyiv in February 2024.
When I was with him, Vlad didn't want to talk about the war; the time we spent together was a way for him to get away from it.
This portrait has a documentary basis that we draw slightly towards fiction, through the assurance of the gaze and the clothing (the bow tie and dinner jacket).
Under martial law, Ukrainian men are forced to consider the possibility of going to the front.
His words : "The great civilization condemns children to survive and work to buy clothes and food."
Nikita Kadan
Feb 2024
"The photo was made in my studio in Kyiv. I listen for the sirens here day by day and once have seen an explosion through the window.
Feb 2024
"The photo was made in my studio in Kyiv. I listen for the sirens here day by day and once have seen an explosion through the window.
Also I have seen the crowds of refugees leaving the city in western direction.
It is like the things I read about in the books on last century history.
It is like anxiety and curiosity coming together. Curiosity of reading my own life as a written story and anxiety of not knowing how things will end."
