During the year Nikolaev photographer Sergey Melnichenko worked on a large-scale documentary project “Under the Dnieper”, implemented with the support of the German Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation. Traveling through cities along the Dnieper — from Kherson to Kiev — he gathered more than 50 testimonies of Ukrainians who experienced various experiences during the full-scale Russian invasion: from victims of sexual violence in the occupation, people who live daily under shelling, volunteers and rescuers soldiers, to soldiers who returned from captivity. The project combines a photobook, a documentary film and a photo project, creating an in-depth chronicle of the country's life during the war.
“This is a grant from the German art foundation Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, which is based in Munich,” says Sergey Melnychenko. - In 2023 they launched a new program — Stories on Humankind. I applied and I was selected along with two other authors — from Germany and China.”
The grant program lasted from the end of 2023 and provided for the full implementation of the project during 2024, effectively covering a full year of work — from development to final result. Serhiy Melnychenko told how he spent a year working on his project.
The river as a line of demarcation and a symbol of unity
“My project is called “Along the Dnipro”, — says Sergey. “I chose Dnipro as the main artery of the country — symbolically. It's not just a river. Dnipro is not only a symbol, but also a literal line of demarcation. For example, in Kherson, the left bank is occupied, the right is controlled by Ukraine. This is another level of meaning that we wanted to put into this route. We also worked in Mykolaiv, Zaporozhye, Dnipro, Cherkassy, Kharkiv, as well as in Kyiv, Poltava region and Donbas — and documented the lives of people in these regions.”
According to the photographer, he consciously chose a wide range of heroes: “These were military, rescuers, volunteers, and civilians - the most different social cut. All these people lived through the war in their own way. Someone has lost a home, someone continues to serve, someone saves the lives of others. I tried not to narrow the focus to just the front or heroism. These are stories of ordinary people who experienced the horrors of war. There are tragic stories, there are less dramatic ones, but they are all real,” the photographer emphasizes. “Through these stories, I tried to show how the war passed through the whole society. It's not about one category — it's about all of us.”
From photo to cinema: three formats of the project “Under the Dnipro”
Grant from Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung for Sergey Melnichenko provided for the creation of exactly PhotoprojectThis was the main condition of the program. But even at the application stage, he proposed to expand the idea.
“The main purpose of the grant is a photo project. When I wrote the application, I immediately noted: I want not only to take pictures, but also to record our trips on video, to interview, to collect archival materials. From the very beginning, I also planned to do documentary”, says Melnichenko.
“We collected about fifty video interviews — with military, rescuers, volunteers, residents of Donbas, people from Kherson region, from all over the country. This is a huge array of material, and now we are faced with the task of assembling something integral from it,” explains the photographer.
At the end of March, work began on the editing and script of the upcoming film. Serhiy directs himself, but works in a team with an editor: “It is important for us not just to mount the interviews one by one, but to find an end-to-end storyline, an emotional structure, so that it all turns into a full-fledged documentary film, not just a cutting of stories.”
The timing of the planned film is more than an hour. A special feature of the future tape will be the personal archives of the heroes. “I asked our heroes — military, rescuers, people who survived the occupation — to share their archives. And many sent photos and videos from their phones: the first days of invasion, evacuation, fighting, destruction,” he says. These materials are integrated into the film and partially into the photobook.
The third important format of the project is Photobookthat is still ahead. Work on it has not officially started — the author is waiting for a decision from the foundation.
“I really want to make a book. But now I am waiting for confirmation from the foundation — whether we will work on it together, or should I look for a designer and a publisher myself,” says Melnychenko. “They have their own publishing house and designers, so it would be logical to make this book under their auspices. It would look very complete: the fund gave a grant — the foundation gives the result.”
The upcoming photobook should be the most complete version of the project — with photos, decoded interviews, texts and archives. “We can't fit a lot in a film, even less in a photo project. And the book makes it possible to assemble the entire project into a single large mosaic. And I really want her to appear,” says the author.
The first large-scale documentary work
Serhiy Melnychenko is the founder of the school of conceptual and art photography MYPH and mostly works in this genre, but Popid Dniprom is his documentary debut.
“We have real heroes, real stories, real portraits. And although I tried to add some symbolic conceptual elements, to dilute the mood a little, this is the first such large, large-scale, long documentary project in my life,” says the photographer.
According to him, working in the genre of conceptual art in this case would be difficult and even inappropriate: “You will not be able to make an artistry or something too conceptual here, when you have living stories from the war in your hands. I see the task of the photographer is to honestly convey the experience of these people,” says Serhiy.
Live each story with the heroes
Working in the documentary genre gave Serhiy Melnychenko an important new professional experience, but it turned out to be a serious emotional test.
“We went with my fiancée Maria — she helped me a lot in everything. We shot on two cameras, she was with me on every trip,” says Sergey. “To be honest: it was difficult. I was especially worried about Mary. I was a little more used to such stories, and it was more difficult emotionally for her. It was painful to see her let it all through herself.”
The photographer recalls that in some moments it was impossible even for him to restrain emotions.
“There were interviews during which I just lowered the camera — tears are already rolling, but you understand: the shooting continues, the process is going on, you can't stop. You have to work further,” he admits, “but you don't just shoot — you live each story with the characters. These are people who have lost relatives, whose loved ones are in captivity, whose homes are destroyed. Many of them survived the occupation. It's not just words.”
The trips lasted for weeks, sometimes without respite: Kiev, Bucha, Irpin, Cherkasy, Poltava, Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Kherson - the list is long. And with each new city, new ruins, new stories, new painful confessions.
“Today is one story, tomorrow is another even deeper, even more difficult. And so for several weeks in a row. For example, in November we returned from filming emotionally exhausted. It was very noticeable that the resource is on the limit,” Serhiy says.
Stories that will remain in the memory forever
The project “Popid Dnipro” consists of dozens of interviews filmed in different regions of the country. But some of these stories Sergey Melnychenko will always remember — and will definitely include in the final version of the photo project, film and book.
“There will definitely be stories from Irpen and Bucha,” he says. “These are the places from which it all began, and which have become a symbol of our pain, resistance, survival. In Bucha, I filmed my student. Her husband is still in captivity. She left with her daughter on the first day — just miraculously escaped the shelling. This was just a few hours before the Russians opened fire on civilian cars. And her husband stayed at home. Then in their house they made a checkpoint, at the table where we were interviewed, the occupiers conducted interrogations. There are still fragments in her house. And she does not take them out, she says, “I leave them as a memory.”
A separate, very difficult story is that of another student Serhiya, who went with her parents to a village near Kiev, thinking that it would be safer there.
“Their village was taken by the Russians. She was a victim of rape and told me about it herself. She joined an association of women who had experienced sexual violence during the war. These women talk publicly about their experiences to help others cope with pain. Because in fact, not only women have been victims of rape and harassment - there are also men who find it difficult to say about it for obvious reasons,” says the photographer.
No less emotionally intense was the shooting in his native Nikolaev. There Sergey filmed several volunteers.
“We met them at my parents' house. During the attack of the Russians on Nikolaev, they lived for several weeks in the basement - well, in fact, in the garage. This is the private sector. They told how they hid there with their neighbors, how they survived. And it was during the recording of the interview that there was an explosion in the city. Ballistics. Just during the conversation. We all instantly went down to the same basement, and continued the interview there. It was such a strange moment — the story of past horrors turned into reality just at the moment of filming.”
Nikolaev, November 2024. Photo by Serhiy Melnichenko
But another detail made this episode special: the volunteer girl, filmed by Sergey, had been waiting for two years from the captivity of her father, the defender of Azovstal: “She showed us a video that her father recorded from captivity: she says, as if everything is fine, in a voice that screams about the opposition adequate. And three or four months after this shooting, in the summer of 2024, she wrote me a message: “Sergey, dad is back!”. I rejoiced for him, as for my family. And he said, “We have to go to you again.”
At first they hesitated — the Azovstal defender who was released from captivity did not want to see any of the journalists, but then agreed to tell about the horrors of Russian captivity. “We recorded a great interview with him. Very deep, emotional. He told how several times they were prepared for exchange, carried - and then returned back. Just turned around on the way. It was a terrible moral swing. But this is a story with a finale that gives hope. And I am very glad that we managed to document it,” Serhiy adds.
Another episode that will definitely be included in the final project is an interview with a girl from Zaporozhye who lost her lover — a Ukrainian military man.
“We filmed in a park where mountain ash grows, planted in honor of the dead. The girl watered the tree, brought with her things related to it. And just next to this tree, we sat on the grass, and she started talking about it. It was one of the most difficult interviews, but also one of the strongest,” Serhiy recalls.
“Each of these stories is not just a shot or a frame in a movie. This is a fragment of real life. Painful, difficult, but also worthy. And I really want these stories to be heard in the world,” he concludes.
From Dreaming to Deep Rethinking
During the year of work on the project “Under the Dnipro”, Serhiy Melnychenko, along with the improvement of the skills of the documentary filmmaker, experienced the experience of internal transformation. “It seems to me that as an author I have already grown a little from my previous themes and genres,” Serhiy shares. - What was before remains somewhere there, and I move on. We grow up, we reveal some deeper topics for ourselves, we experience them, we pass through ourselves.”
The photographer says that this project became the realization of his old dream and at the same time an occasion for a profound rethinking of his own creative path.
“It only recently occurred to me that I once dreamed of making a documentary, making a big, long-term documentary — and that's what happened. This is a kind of “tick” in my life. But at the same time everything happened very calmly, easily: I received a grant, worked, filmed. And only now I realize how important it is for me,” Serhiy shares.
Emphasis on relevance: will it be possible to show the project earlier
According to the terms of the grant, the first public presentation of the project “Popid Dnipro” is to take place in the format of an exhibition in Munich, in the space of the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation. This is to be a group exhibition of the three fellows of the program. According to the contract, the exhibition is scheduled for 2026, and possibly even for 2027. Until then, the author has no right to present this project in full form anywhere.
“But I myself appealed to the foundation with a request, if there is an opportunity, to show it earlier: you see that in Ukraine it is almost impossible to plan something in advance,” says the photographer. “I emphasized the relevance, because it is important to show such a project when it resonates, not in two years, when the context can change.”
Now the photographer is waiting for the final answer of the foundation, whether it will be possible to speed up the public presentation.
“So far the situation is uncertain. But at least I am able to gradually publish individual photos on social networks and tell what we have been working on during the year,” he adds.
Serhii Melnychenko— photographer, teacher, founder of the conceptual and art photography school MYPH. He began working in photography in 2009. Since then, he has participated in about 200 solo and group exhibitions, fairs, and festivals around the world. He has organized and curated over 50 projects and exhibitions featuring the work of MYPH students around the world over the past seven years. He is the winner of national and international competitions and awards, including the Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer in 2017 (Berlin), Photographer of the Year in 2012, 2013, and 2016 (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Golden Camera in 2012 (Kyiv, Ukraine). He was a finalist for Krakow Photomonth and Pinup in 2014 (Kyiv, Ukraine). in 2012, 2013, and 2016 (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Golden Camera in 2012 (Kyiv, Ukraine). Finalist of Krakow Photomonth, Pinchuk Art Center Prize, Off_Festival Bratislava 2014, DEBUTS 2018, Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award, Batumi Photodays, and others.
Participant in Paris Photo, Volta Art Fair, Photo L.A., Photo Basel, Unseen fair. Nominee for the Foam Paul Huf Award in 2020 and 2023. Selected to participate in the European platform for photographers FUTURES in 2022. Serhii's photographs are in private and public collections in the US, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, and elsewhere. In 2022 and 2023, two series, comprising a total of 25 works by Serhii, were included in the permanent collection of the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung. In 2023, he received an annual scholarship (grant) from the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung to create his own photo project.
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Researcher, author: Vira Labych
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Literary editor: Yulia Futey
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