We continue with a series of interviews with professional Ukrainian documentarians.
We talked with Pavel Petrov about the work of a photographer in the State Emergency Service, about the lack of routine during typical shootings, about footage from the war that cannot yet be shown, and why it is important to capture death on camera.
About the profession
Do I feel like a documentary photographer? Interesting question really. It was worth thinking about before the air (laughs). I am a documentary photographer, but of a very narrow profile. My work can be described as such.
In 2012, I started working with the SNS. I studied at the State Emergency Service, but I took a little photo. My education is civil security. We can say that I accidentally got into the press service.
I studied in Kharkiv, and since 2017 I started working in the press service of the State Emergency Service. At that time, the Russian-Ukrainian war was already going on and I spent a lot of time in the east of Ukraine, in particular in Severodonetsk. At that time, the situation on the front was more or less stable. When I came to the SNS, we already understood our locations for work. For example, checkpoints in Luhansk region, in particular Stanytsia Luhanska, as well as checkpoint “Zolote”, which was tried to open five times. This point was never opened, if I am not mistaken, because in 2020 I already left Luhansk region. They worked in Popasna and towns near it, in Stanichno-Luhansk district, which was very close to the line of hostilities; in the city of Schastya, which was located across the bridge from the occupation troops in Luhansk region. Vests and helmets with the words “World Cup” in white paint were the norm in those regions. There were rules that did not exist in other regions of Ukraine.
About the work of a photographer in the State Emergency Service
I did not look at my work as an opportunity to explore what awaits our entire country in the future. From the very beginning, the war seemed inevitable to me. Something has to happen and they will move on. In 2020, when I transferred, I had a constant feeling that the war would spread further, but to what extent it was unclear. I remember very well that it was with this thought that I moved from Luhansk region to Kiev region. I remember this thought, although it was fleeting and arose on the road, somewhere near Kharkov. Perhaps due to the fact that he moved with a cat in his arms, which was in such a special carrier. I kept mentioning it in 2022, then I was like looking into the water.
The SNS has its own structure. There are main departments in the regions. In the Luhansk region there was one department for the whole region. There were 5-6 people working in the press service. It is not a fact that the state was completely slaughtered, there could have been both three and four people. However, they were based in cities, regional centers, and they did not have the opportunity to quickly reach the region during an emergency, somewhere in the region 200 kilometers away. Usually, in each area there was a person who could be contacted, who was responsible for this direction. After graduation, I went to work in the Starobilsky district of the Luhansk region, because I came from there.
I come from Starobilsk. He lived on Andryushchenko Street, which is now renamed Nikolay Zherebyl Street. This was a very young guy, eight years younger than me, from my house, who died in the fighting near Lisichansk. Starobilsk is now a temporarily occupied territory. There remained both the house and the apartment. In 2022, I took my mother from there. She now lives and works in Kyiv.
I remember my first shooting for the SNS. Very close to the village of Chmyrivka, grass burned heavily, comyshi. It was a fire in the ecosystem that I filmed and sent to Severodonetsk, to the main department. We prepared materials for them. After that, apparently someone there saw the guy doing something very interesting... I think so.
After graduation, I wanted to leave the service. Perhaps it was the work in the press service that allowed me to do what I liked, and I stayed. At the beginning, I was very angry that the photos from the work of the State Emergency Service were mostly about nothing. You look at the picture, and there some incomprehensible man does something incomprehensible. Such photos did not cause any emotions, there was no feedback inside that this is really important work. I just wanted to show you how I see it. At that time, compared to the present, the weight of the service was completely different.
About ethical aspects of work
My first trip during the war was in 2018 in Stanichno-Luhansk region. However, not near the occupied territory, namely near the Russian Federation. The mined forest burned very hard. We drove from Severodonetsk to the fire fighting headquarters for about three hours through fields and along a road broken by machinery. While we were driving, the calculation of the SNS sappers was called there, who made a mine line, and after them the foresters made minesweepers. It is a common thing to divide the two parts of the forest with each other so that the fire, for example, does not spill over the grass deck. The tractor driver thought that they were deporting for a very long time, decided to drive around and blew up fifty meters in fifty meters. It is good that our sappers saved him - they provided all the necessary first aid and transferred it to the doctors. We come - me with a camera and the guys who were supposed to lead the fire fighting in the area. The chief of the unit runs out of the forest, takes out a vest from the tank, a helmet and says: “You come with me, only foot in foot.” I say, “What?” He replies: “Well, as we threw the sleeve, so we walk on it, because it is not exchanged here.” Then I understood a lot about my work.
Then he filmed like a burning forest. I have these photos. It was a very powerful work of pyrotechnics, as there were also mini-traps that were blown up on the spot. We worked there for at least two days. The fire managed to spill over the river into the Russian Federation, so it was funny.
The first time I photographed the deceased after the fire, I doubted whether I had the right to do so. Over time, I realized: it is necessary to show such footage so that people realize the problem. It's like with faith: you decide for yourself whether it's worth it. I chose this way, demonstrating it through the work of rescuers.
I felt very strange when I first took a picture of a dead person. She died from the fire. Then I had the question of whether I had the right to do it. Now such questions do not arise. Then I photographed the deceased for the first time. I had to answer the question for myself, why do I do it. I think it's like religion. You have to answer yourself whether you believe in something or not. I decided I needed to show. This is important because if you break any rules, you can die. It still works for me. My explanation is this. Perhaps some people will be able to see the problem precisely because of the death of another person. However, I always try to do this through the prism of the work of rescue units.
On the first day of full-scale war
On February 24, 2022, I met at work. On February 23, a state of emergency was imposed and then it was just my shift. We then alternated for weeks and that was just my change. I woke up at four in the morning from a bunch of messages in the work chat. As I remember now — it was one of the offices in our head office. I just remember opening my eyes. I was in warm socks, so knitted, very, very powerful. I took them off, put on my shoes, came into the office and just started waking up with all these thoughts. However, there was no surprise. I remember that in the morning at work there was a little chaos, and inside I was surprisingly calm.
My first photo since February 24 is of the arrival. Since February 25, there has already been work on the left bank. I also photographed colleagues, their emotions, surprises. I have a frame where someone is standing and holding their head. You could just read on your face — people don't know what to do.
Fortunately, on February 24, there were no extraordinary events in Kiev. Our rescuers went to Brovary, but the press service was not taken, since it was the territory of the Kiev region. On February 25, I went to the left bank, to Koshitsa Street. There was a rocket, but I could be wrong because it was really such a first trip. Near the apartment building, a piece of rocket fell, as if shot down. Windows were knocked out throughout the house. Due to the large shock wave, some doors did not open. Rescuers extinguished the fire and evacuated people who could not get out on their own. The entrances were very smoky. I didn't quite understand what was happening at the time. Just took as a basis everything that I shot before.
During the filming before the full-scale invasion, I knew what was coming next. Rescuers have algorithms by which they work, determine the decisive direction of work. When you “cook” in this for a very long time, you understand what will happen next, what will happen in five minutes. For example, rescuers arrived, deployed equipment, some people will go to extinguish the fire inside, some will remain outside. I plan to shoot myself, for me this is no longer an unpredictability. It helps me a lot in my work. Catching the moment.
About photography during the war
I was not satisfied with the first shooting of the arrival. It seems to me that we could have worked out much better. The work of the rescuers was very good in fact, but the photos and video material that I took then did not satisfy me. Unlike February 26. Then I filmed a direct hit of a rocket into a high-rise building on Lobanovsky Avenue. We were the first to arrive at the scene. I remember that Kiev was empty and we drove at high speed along the Friendship of Peoples. Police and some fire and rescue units were already on the scene. Rescuers began to climb up, evacuate people, remove the wounded woman. I shot all the work of the rescuers at the level. In parallel, there was an alarm and I, together with the National Police, evacuated people who were just standing on the street to the underground passage. People with children, dogs there were waiting for a second alarm.
When you can't change the situation, when you live in a certain given, at least I can tell you about it. I was satisfied with the result of my work, because my shooting was very scattered and the world began to see. The photos have been published in many media and have spread well on instagram. I understood that this was happening all over the country, but it was important for me to show that the war was in the capital. This is the heart of Ukraine and the war is already here.
For rescuers, perhaps, every challenge is difficult. We recorded many rescuers and are still recording during the full-scale Russian invasion. It's hard for everyone when people die. Rescuers would have to get used to it, but no one gets used to it.
On March 1, there was an attack on the TV tower. There is a gas station nearby and opposite a two-storey building — a gym. She was burning. Rescuers and firefighters arrived under the tower itself — a tank came from the Sixth State Fire and Rescue Department. We arrived on the road between the tower and the gym. It seemed to me that even the earth was burning. There was such a moment when we got out of the car, and everything was in smoke, which dissipated there on the road for an hour. When we got closer, we saw four bodies. Four people were burned from the temperature.
I have a photo that was taken for me by director and videographer Serhiy Mikhalchuk. He caught me when I went out to the journalists and asked them to step away. I was all in the powder from the fire extinguisher. I then cleaned my camera from this powder for another week.
I managed to take a picture with a tree without leaves and part of a rocket. I just wanted to show that, despite the human sacrifices, nothing happened in the Russian Federation. What they wanted to do, they did not succeed.
About photo projects
The feeling of routine comes from doing the same. However, when you arrive somewhere, there is no such feeling. Perhaps people are engaged in rescue in the same form, and sometimes it can be the same people. For example, if we talk about small units, as was the case in Bakhmut. One unit came there and worked there. However, situations and the way rescuers deal with them are always atypical. Even if we talk about the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant — we were there for about 20 days and every day was not like the other.
Now I work in Kyiv. Before that, I worked in the central apparatus of the State Emergency Service and traveled all over the country. I photographed Kakhovsk hydroelectric power plant, events in Vinnitsa, Dnipro, Uman, Odessa, and also traveled around Donetsk region well. I show the work of rescuers, rescue service. I work in special gear, such as that of a lifeguard or firefighter. In combat clothing that can withstand the temperature. I have a regular helmet, a booster so that nothing flies somewhere behind the collar, fire-resistant boots. This gives me the opportunity to be as close as possible to the rescuers who get people, I can climb with them, for example, to the ninth floor on the elevator, that is, to be next to them. After all, any photographer can be nearby, the main thing is that he is safe.
Until the end of the war, I do not plan a career as a freelance photographer. I want to finish this story for myself first. And I want to finish another photo story, but it will still be collected for a very long time. This is a photo project about the SNS. We have a lot of interesting people, just like in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who have already done a lot of cool and great things for this country.
The material was worked on:
Author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Literary Editor: Julia Foutei
Site Manager: Marusya Maruzhenko
