To give a frame to any structure, one has to create a narration that would divide people onto those taking part and those outside of it. In case of a state, a myth utilises symbols of special significance, poets, brave soldiers, progressive industrialisation, injuries and injustices, magnificence of the landscape. Changes in structure require corresponding changes of myth itself - changes of banners, changes of important parts of history, changes of eternal allies.
Michał Sierakowski, documentary photographer working on a Wild Fields documentary project, focuses on relations between Ukrainian landscape and the national identity of present Ukraine - constantly changing and reconstructing in a process of shaping the national myth out of various elements of the past. Myth-creating function of national heritage, idea of patriotism suspended between modern nationalism and romantic-era backbone, legacy of communist industrialisation and finally, the pantheon of modern heroes and martyrs - all of these elements, leaving a trace in the landscape and social structure, construct a narrative about contemporary Ukraine, just as unassuming and changing shape as the myth of the framework of the national structure.
This project is co funded by the artistic scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Awards:
Bird In Flight Prize, finalist, 2018
New East Photo Prize, finalist, 2018
Grand Prix Interphoto Białystok 2017, finalist, 2017
Exhibitions:
Educatorium Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine, January — February 2018
LAW Gallery, Warsaw, Poland, May 2017
Kyiv Photo Fair, Kyiv, Ukraine, November 2018
Calvert 22 Foundation, London, UK, October — December 2018
Białystok Interphoto Festival, Białystok, Poland, September 2017
Unfinished bridge
Khortitsia Island, Zaporizhzia, 2017
Herding sheep
Man herds his sheep around closed and forgotten coal mines, close to the border with Romania.
Solotvyno, Transcarpathia, 2017
Untitled Ukrainian Landscape No. 115
Marx and Lenin
Owners of small glass workshop in Kharkiv built a mini exhibition of monuments, from Ivan Franko to Volodimir Lenin.
Kharkiv, 2017
Maidan, Three Years Later
Lonely soldier overlooks Independence Square during Heavenly Hundred commemoration day and nationalists march.
Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv, 2017
Glory to Visa-Free Regime
Promotional cup celebrating start of schengen visa-free regime for Ukrainians.
Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, 2017
Zhenya and Anya
“I always dreamed to move out from Luhansk and go to Kyiv, but I was too lazy to do that. I remember, after the war broke out, I was in a bus going out from occupied territories and separatists stopped us to check our documents. One soldier asked me where am I going. Kyiv - I said and I started thinking that it was a bad idea to say that. So then the next separatist comes to me and asks again where I’m going — to Kharkov, I say. There were antiukrainian protests in Kharkov back then, so I thought that it might be a better answer for them. You just said that you are going to Kyiv?! another guard asked, so I said that, you know, to Kharkov for a few days, then to Kyiv, then maybe Dnipropetrovsk, just a trip around country. That’s ok, they said, when will you come back to Luhansk? In a week or two probably, I said. That was the last time I’ve been in Luhansk.”
Kyiv, September 2016
Golden Shukhevych
Fierce revolutionary and fighter for Ukrainian independence Roman Shukhevych was responsible for coordinating attacks on Polish property and government offices in Galicia. The intend was to radicalize Ukrainian population into anti-polish sentiment and build up Ukrainian nationalism. This led directly to crude Polish retaliation which included collective punishment and demolition of Ukrainian community centers, libraries, orthodox churches and schools.
To this day the figure of Shukhevych exists as a double symbol. For Ukrainians - a symbol of patriotism and fight for independence. For Poles - a symbol of Volyn Massacre, despite no hard evidence of him taking part nor ordering ethnic cleansing.
Fatherland of Bandera Museum,
Staryi Uhryniv, Western Ukraine, 2016
Monument to soldiers of 1st Cavalry Army
1st Cavalry Army was a prominent Red Army military formation taking part in Russian Civil War and Polish-Bolshevik war. After World War I soviet propaganda created a myth about legendary strength and invincibility of this unit.
In March 2016 what is left of monument of 1st Cavalry Army in Olesko is just iron frame. Copper covering had been all but looted.
Olesko, Lvivska Oblast, 2017
Untitled
Kyiv, 2016
Untitled Ukrainian Landscape No. 66
People flock to Stryi river in the city of the same name to celebrate first warm day of spring.
Stryi, Western Ukraine, 2017
Boys dressed as Zaporizhzhian Cossacks
Zaporizhzhia, 2015
Untitled Ukrainian Landscape no 84
Enerhodar, May 2017
Ivan
“Of course it was scary in Debaltseve. But somebody needed to do the work.” Now working as a police officer in Avdiivka, Ivan fought in Shyrokine and Debaltseve, where he was trapped in a kettle. While showing me shelled buildings in Avdiivka he talks about his family living on occupied territories. He’s from Donetsk oblast too, but he decided to fight for Ukraine. Now he can’t go back home, separatists wouldn’t be very happy to see him.
Avdiivka, Donetsk outskirts, October 2017
Untitled
Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, 2017
Vitalik
Vitalik is one of military chaplains I met in Avdiivka. He doesn't sit in the trenches to evangelise soldiers. As he tells me, what's most important for him is the soldiers mental health. They need to stay sane. If they get sick anyway, he and his colleagues are working on estabilishing a free psychological treatment for veterans back in Kharkiv, Vitalik's home town.
Avdiivka, Donetsk outskirts, October 2017
Siverskiy Donets River
Izyum, Kharkivska Oblast, October 2017
Jamil
Jamil ran away from his native town of Luhansk right after the time when first separatists showed up in his city, but after two years of trying to make the ends meet in Kyiv he decided to go back. “Try to rent out
a room in Kyiv and you will end up spending most of your monthly pay on it.” he says “I have family back in Luhansk, and my own business too. And now, when almost everybody left Luhansk, I rent out a flat for mere pennies”.
Kyiv, October 2017
Untitled Ukrainian Landscape No 34
Odessa, 2016
Yaroslav and Kuyalnik Estuary
Yaroslav moved to Odessa from Novosibirsk. Being a native Russian its not hard for him to blend in mostly russian-speaking Odessa. ‘I don’t want to and I won’t ever comeback to Novosibirsk. It’s cold, dull and nobody’s smiling there. Odessa is better.’
dessa, Southern Ukraine, 2016
Wildfire
Carpathians, 2017