Ukrainian photographer Elizaveta Bukreeva told why she does not expect anything from photography, but continues to film the war close up, and why she chooses such complex emotional topics, although she considers herself too sensitive for this profession.
“When I started taking pictures, I didn't expect to get anything in return”
As a child, I liked to take pictures with blinking eyes - so I kept the image for myself. My mother gave me my first camera when I was still in school — it was a Canon 350D. Then I filmed classmates, school life, took the first photo shoots with my friends. I started photographing consciously in 2019, and it was immediately street and documentary, that is, not staged photography.
For as long as I can remember, I have always been interested in art, since my school years I went to all the exhibitions that I came across. She went to school in the cinema “Kiev” and “Kinopanorama”, because they showed festival cinema there. Photography seemed something unattainable, that is, I understood how to make money on commercial and wedding shoots, but it never attracted me. And returning to photography as an adult, I did not expect anything. I accepted that I might never get anything in return. And this has become, I think, my great advantage. Because expecting someone to pay money for photos of strangers is very ambitious, and I didn't have that ambition. I shoot because I can't help but do it, that's all.
I did what I wanted and how I wanted, and I was not pressured by the thought of having to make it to the deadline, enter a project or win a competition, because otherwise I do everything for nothing. I always knew that photography was my life's occupation, I just didn't understand how to make money from it. I don't really understand now, just now photography is something much more important than material things.
“War has become a part of me and the biggest part of my life.
I am still not sure that I have reached a certain level in the profession. This, perhaps, is such a feature of character — to constantly work and look further. It is much more important to me what I will create in the future than the analysis of existing works.
I have a large list of exhibitions abroad, but I did not attend any of them physically. In Ukraine, especially in Kyiv, my works were also exhibited. Recently, a personal photo book “Where I was born” was published. The book includes photographs she has taken over the past four years, including pictures taken after February 24, 2022. I love this project and still continue to shoot it. I hope there will be more new parts of it published in books. The series is depersonalized, it is more about the manifestation of man in urban landscapes. There are no individual characters in the book, I did not try to add many street portraits there, although I have them. Photobook “Where I was born” about the environment in which we were born and about the presence of a person in it, about the environment in which we grew up and that shapes us. I decided not to limit myself to pictures from Kyiv, because our growing up and life is influenced by the country as a whole. For me, these pictures are not just a series of images, but also a journey into my past and my memories. Many places can be destroyed forever due to war.
I started shooting in 2019, and it was mostly separate series of photos. It so happened that my last project of 2021 was about the anticipation of war. Now all my work is related to the theme of war. She became a part of me and the biggest part of my life.
I'm definitely not going to photograph propaganda, regardless of the purpose of the shoot. I will not shoot stories that can justify Russian aggression. I will not take up photography if I do not feel my touch or interest in the subject. I work on my own projects, but sometimes I take pictures for the media. However, I take those shots where there is no clear plan, exactly how and who to photograph, and also when I can shoot the subject as I see it. There are not many such shootings. I usually work on my projects at my own expense. My colleague Olesya Sayenko calls me an “independent war photographer”. Probably, it is.
“I'm too sensitive for this profession”
I am too sensitive for this profession because I am affected and affected by many things. And it does not necessarily have to be very scary events in their general sense. I remember children who live in frontline or de-occupied territories. For me, this is always a very difficult ethical issue, because these children have no choice. Often, parents return them there against their will, and children do not have the opportunity to go to relatively safe regions on their own, since they are not yet adults. In towns and villages close to the war, children do not have the opportunity to fully learn, develop, access medicine, etc. The contours on the map are very limiting. It will be easier for me to tell which shots did not catch me. I remember the heroes of my photos well, I know their names and I stop by to explore if I'm anywhere near.
For six months now I have been working on a project about military medics. I film their work on site and between work shifts that last four days. This is the titanic labor of men, and this hell has no backyard door to exhale. Fighters, fighters who lie on tables and talk about dozens of days in positions, how they waited to be evacuated, and check with the medic whether they helped themselves properly. I don't even have the thoughts to tell them: I'm tired, I won't come. Fatigue is not a reason to stop. Yes, it is hard work and it is not easy for me to give it, despite the fact that I have a door, I can get out. Often on the set you see so many wounded that there is no lumen for which you can get hooked. However, everyone is trying to find something good, trying to joke.
“I often tell myself that my photography during war is important.”
I am often asked how I would describe my work. I answer that these are photos that anyone can take, but usually only I take. At first glance, my photos look very simple and there is a false impression that everyone can take this way. I go for this visual simplicity on purpose — difficult topics often do not need to be complicated visually. I do not think about patterns or stamps in photography, but simply do as I feel, see and want.
It is difficult for me to compare my projects with each other, because they are very different visually. It is important for me not to repeat myself, not to replicate my work, and so far I succeed. For me, it is important not to make thousands of conditionally identical shots, but to shoot differently and talk about different topics. I try not to “repeat myself” and of course it is very difficult. As for me, you need to do what will be best for the photo.
I photograph the war, but I, like many of my colleagues, did not choose this path. The choice was made for me. However, I am often faced with gratitude. For example, when I work with civilians who live near the front or in liberated areas. People literally thank me for being there for them, for coming to tell and show how they live. However, I don't have the feeling that I'm really doing anything very important.
In documentary photography, it is quite difficult to understand exactly what contribution you have made. This can only be measured in the long term. My project War Diary is a personal war diary that still finds a response among Western audiences. After the exhibitions, words of gratitude come to me in messages. In particular, they write that they understand how difficult it is to reach the Western audience, and that with this project I succeeded. Instead, I often convince myself that my wartime photography is important.
“No shot is worth another person's health or life”
Photographers have many challenges at work during the war. First, to one degree or another we give our health, spend our own resources. Secondly, there is always an ethical question about what to shoot and how to shoot. For example, whether to photograph the military and relatives of prisoners, because this is a matter of security. Many Ukrainian photographers cooperate with foreign media, their photos hit the headlines of world media. Then the Russian Federation can use these photos to create fakes and propaganda.
One of the challenges is how to photograph the war so that Western audiences will pay attention to it. News about Ukraine is less and less printed in the world press, no one wants to look at the blood. You need to constantly look for new ways to capture the war, to reach the viewer, to make you watch these photos.
Left: A pile of artillery shells in a tree, Moshchun, Kyiv region, Ukraine. July 9, 2022.
Right: Butterfly on a burned car, Gostomel, Kyiv region, Ukraine. September 25, 2022.
As for my own photography ethics, I am primarily a person, not a photographer. If you need to help, and at this moment I can make a good frame, for me the question of choice is not worth it. You will not take all the photos anyway, and not a single frame is worth the health or life of another person.
Yes, I digest grief and give it out in images. I show hell, and I have to pack it so that attention is paid to it. Show more than photos of destruction, blood, severed limbs. Because grief does not end with destroyed walls. In this land of memories, decades of work, life. And I have to respect that grief, for I am only a witness, not for me to experience it. Although I have no right to look away from suffering.
In working at the stabilization point, I do not try to take the bloodiest or most gruesome photo. First, because the work of doctors and military is not about death, but about life, and secondly, I am responsible for these shots in front of the heroes. Of course, I ask everyone if I can shoot, but this permission does not give me the right to everything. I know for sure that these photos will be found by relatives and friends of the injured. And I influence how they see them. Grief will not become visually stronger than the amount of blood depicted. In April, I took a photo of wounded fighters sitting in pajamas after helping, with the inscription: “Shine bright”. This is a tragedy, but also a great show of concern at the same time. Doctors change into clean and dry clothes of absolutely every fighter, often this clothing has bright prints and inscriptions. Of course, they would never wear such pajamas on a soldier with a serious injury. But the guys in the photo joked with each other, and the evacuation team asked where to get one for themselves. And it's about caring, about doing something good outside the protocol for someone who hit your table. And that only intensifies the tragedy.
In my work, I try everything on myself, I try to think about people first, this is a photo about my love, and not for the sake of the “love” of the viewer.
In 2022, she worked on the project “Scars of lost humanity” about how deeply the war seeped into our space, became familiar to us. We stopped paying attention to the chipped asphalt, broken houses, burned cars. Subsequently, there were conceptual projects, such as “Our past will not exist in the future.” I found negatives in the house destroyed by Russian shelling on Saltovka in Kharkiv. For the project, she manually printed photos on wallpaper, broken glass and personal belongings of apartment owners.
“Of course it's scary, but not so much as not to go here”
My work on military medics, which I began working on at the 2024—2025 border, is perhaps the most directly related to war of all my projects. The doctors at first thought I was military. They were surprised that a civilian stays with them for several days, when even brigade photographers occasionally spend the night there. Doctors ask why this is for me, and friends and acquaintances are constantly wondering if I am scared. I had a good dialogue on this topic during one of the trips to the station. There was a difficult change, many doctors gathered near the seriously wounded fighter, the operating room was cramped. Suddenly the surgeon asked me at all if I was scared. I say it's scary, of course, but not so much as not to go here. Everyone was silent, and after a long pause, the doctor said that he was also scared. Everyone understands that in such a situation, when there are many risks, it can not be scary.
I am personally very frightened by FPV drones — when I worked in Nikopol district in Dnipropetrovsk region, a drone flew behind my car, and now I am constantly seeing the consequences of drones.
“Through the camera, I find myself very close to the war”
Any photo, in my opinion, is subjective, because it is the author who chooses what will be in the frame, and what will remain out of focus. During the war, I realized that photography is often the least of photographs, here it is also about presence, sometimes the photographer's very presence is more important than the images taken. I don't think I would have gained such experience and understanding in civilian life.
I did not become more cynical during the full-scale war, rather the opposite. My job now is to digest grief and render it in images. The most difficult thing is to carry love through this pain, without letting it hurt.
I never had a moment when I told myself that working as a photographer during a war made no sense. There were questions, why do I need it. Why spend so much time, effort and resource on work that may never work. These are normal human questions to which I do not find an unambiguous clearly formed answer. Instead, I periodically find different persuasions for myself, cling to something good.
I remember one moment when I worked in the Nikopol district, where the shelling never fades. In April 2024, I met a teenage girl there, who asked me about the camera, about the work of a photographer. I realized that it was very good that this girl in her area saw and discovered something new. I do not delude myself that my work is very important, although others see a lot of meaning in it. That's enough for me to keep working.
I started photographing on February 25, 2022. Many of my colleagues for a long time could not take the camera in their hands. Instead, I had no doubt whether to take pictures or not. Through the camera, I find myself very close to the war. However, I don't know if it would be easier for me if I didn't take pictures now. I feel responsible to people, often I am supported by colleagues. I really hope that I have enough inspiration to find the strength to work further.
Bukreeva Elizaveta— Ukrainian street and documentary photographer. Participant of ICP Concerned 2020 in New York, finalist of Italian Street Photography festival 2021. The photos were published in Eyeshot Magazine, The Village Ukraine, Untitled, The Reporters and The Ukraïner.
Photographer's social networks:Instagramand Facebook
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Picture editor: Olga Kovalyova
Literary Editor: Julia Foutei
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