War is the most terrible manifestation of humanity. No film, book nor photograph can convey the horror of what happens. Even the person living in it is never fully aware of all the pain – because it’s impossible to live with it. Literally. 24.02.2022. When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, the flow of time transformed, and I realised I could no longer distinguish a change from one day to the next. Everything merged into a single long moment, and I started keeping a diary. Textual and visual. It helped me structure things and my feelings.
The realisation that even those living in war are incapable of understanding the horror of what’s happening – because it’s impossible to live with. Literally, it’s impossible to live with. When you take a photograph, you always analyse whether or not it’s enough; does this photograph show what really happened here? But it’s impossible; the fear, the willingness to die, the courage of the brave defenders, the pain of being either an eyewitness or a victim of the Russian military are all impossible to convey. It smells different: the war smells. You walk through shell casings, through shards of homes, past kids who look like they’ve lived multiple lives. They’ve seen things that no one should see. As a photographer, it’s freeing, because whatever you do won’t be enough.
Lisa Bukreyeva
Lisa Bukreyeva (b. 1993) is a photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since her journey with photography began in 2019, her works have been presented at a range of museums and festivals, including Photo Elysée, Lausanne; Noorderlicht Festival, Groningen; and Deichtorhallen – Internationale Kunst Und Fotographie, Hamburg. Meanwhile, her images have featured in the likes of Der Spiegel, Zeit, The New York Magazine and Blind Magazine. Bukreyeva is a member of the Burn My Eye collective.
