See today’s Ukraine through the lens of women photographers
Alina Smutko is a documentary photographer based in Poltava, Ukraine. "I am a photojournalist, Ukrainian Muslim, feminist and the mom of the two-years-old Leo," she says. Smutko's main focus has been human rights violations in Crimea. Image: Alina Smutko
5 August 2020
Text:
Paula Erizanu
Ukraine’s capital has long felt the absence of a photography gallery. In its place, are a variety of publishers and digital platforms devoted to lens-based art. The Insta account @womenphotograph.kyiv is a showcase of the country’s photographic talent, especially those artists that often are under-represented.
Thanks to regular Instagram takeovers by women and nonbinary photographers, who make the @womenphotograph.kyiv community, the account is championing inclusivity and diversity, while portraying the many different aspects of life in Ukraine in styles ranging from abstract to documentary photography.
Coming of age stories, whether they involve growing up in a boarding school for children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (called ‘internat’), in provincial towns (Schastya, Luhansk), or in rural Ukraine, make up a big part of the focus of @womenphotograph.kyiv.
Female photographers are largely unseen in conflict photography: @womenphotograph.kyiv is unique in showing the female experience of the war in Ukraine, and life in other separatist regions of Eastern Europe, as captured for instance by Julia Kochetova-Nabozhniak and Alina Smutko.
