“7 Seconds” is one of the projects selected within the framework of the third annual micro-grant support program for Ukrainian documentarians, implemented by UAPP. The program's goal is to support authors who continue to record the experience of a country resisting aggression and create visual testimonies of events that define the history of modern Ukraine. The program is implemented with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine.
Video: The 420th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion “Khort,” 16th Army Corps
7 seconds — that is the average exposure time required for an ambrotype. These seven seconds can signify a pause between explosions, a moment of decision, or another breath—a span of time in which dozens or hundreds of lives can vanish. But it is also the time during which light falls onto a glass plate, forming an image—and the time when a service member before the camera confronts the silence, their own gaze, and themselves.
In the mid-19th century, photography first showed the world war as a visceral, painful reality. Now, war is broadcast live, in an endless stream where events dissolve in speed. We become accustomed to war as visual noise. The image that should bear witness hides more than it reveals. Ambrotype is a way to slow down the gaze, to grant time for the encounter between the photographer and the subject standing before the camera. This meeting of the past and the present, the slow and the instantaneous, creates another reality where every image becomes a testament to time, memory, dignity, and respect.
Through this project, I want to express my personal gratitude and respect to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Special thanks to everyone who participated in the filming and its organization: first and foremost, Alla Bovt, Head of the Communications Department of the 16th Army Corps, the fighters of the 151st Separate Mechanized Brigade, the 420th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion, the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, the 91st Separate Anti-Tank Battalion, the 48th Separate Artillery Brigade, the 113th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade, the 3rd Separate Heavy Mechanized Separate Iron Brigade, the 154th Separate Mechanized Brigade, the 48th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion, the 41st Separate Mechanized Brigade, the 14th Air Defense Command Post, and the 28th Separate Artillery Brigade.
Stanislav Ostrous — born in 1972 in Zhmerinka, Ukraine. Photographer, photojournalist, and educator, he lives and works in Kharkiv. He works at the intersection of documentary and art photography, primarily using analog technologies.Finalist for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) 2025, nominee for LOBA Newcomer 2026, and Heinrich Böll Foundation fellow (2024). Member of UPHA, UAPP, and MYPH; his works have been exhibited in Ukraine, Germany, Georgia, Armenia, Poland, Korea, and Lithuania. He teaches photography at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture and at the MYPH School of Conceptual and Art Photography.
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