Portraits from Ukraine, by photographer Mark Neville. He started work on his latest book Stop Tanks with Books a few years back, before his eventual move to Kyiv in October 2020, in an attempt to draw attention to Ukraine and its people, and the threat from Russia. Clearly the whole project has a fresh urgency now, since the Russian invasion. The book, as well as Neville's photos, has short stories about the conflict from Ukrainian novelist Lyuba Yakimchuk, and research from the Centre of Eastern European Studies in Berlin about the millions of Ukrainians already displaced by the war.
Making Stop Tanks With Books was my attempt to fight Russian aggression. My photographs, Lyuba Yakimchuk’s incredible short stories about living in Russian occupied Donbas, the research carried out by ZOiS about the 2.5 million people already displaced by the war, by 2018, and the ‘call to action’ are interwoven here not just to provoke empathy, but also to provide a clearer understanding of this brave, kind, misrepresented nation.
“Boy with dog, Troitske, Luhansk,” 2019
Rhythm Büro Rave, Kyiv,” 2019
“Aleksandr Konokov and Sasha on their Goat Farm in Desiatyny, Zhytomyr region,” 2017
“Couple at Stanytsia Luhanska Bridge,” 2019
“Soldier in Mariupol,” 2021
Ukrainsk, Donetsk," 2021
"Yana and Igor Karaman with friend Galina, Odesa," 2017
"Zhytomyr Special Boarding School for Deaf Children No.2," 2016
"Policewomen, Mariupol," 2019
"Zhytomyr Special Boarding School for Deaf Children No. 2," 2016
"Lina in a national costume, Orihovo-Vasylivka village, Donetsk," 2018
"Maria Holubets, Natalia Tarasenko, Rozalia Boiko, Maria Shvanyk and Rozalia Mahnyk, at the Greek Catholic Monastery, Zvanivka," 2018
"Skateboarder in Mariupol," 2021
"Three Kilometres from the frontline, Donetsk," 2019
"Soldier, Avdiivka," 2019
"Kristina in Troyitske, Eastern Ukraine, an hour after the shelling," 2016
[Photos © Mark Neville]
Impossible to look at these people and not wonder what's happened to them over the past few months.
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