I Hope Your Family is Safe

"I Hope Your Family is Safe" is my comeback home during the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war. It documents the everyday lives and experiences of my family and friends during Ukraine's fight for freedom and independence. 

The project emerged from the question asked by many people abroad - “Is your family safe?”, which I didn’t know how to reply to. I still don’t have an answer today, so I decided  to look for a visual one in Ukraine.

This body of work aims to look into the complexity of the contemporary life of Ukraine and its people. The coexistence of life and death, creation and destruction, civil and military life, hope and pain. It offers a perspective alternative to the simplified and victimised image of Ukrainians often produced by and unquestionably accepted in the West.

Originating from a genuine concern for the well-being of my loved ones, the project became a way of a deeper self-reflection. Set against the backdrop of the ongoing war, my homecoming evoked childhood memories and emotions connected to the place where I grew up and the people living there. It also became an exploration of my feelings when being in Ukraine and the idea of safety associated with home, which in reality is often a place that contains a lot of pain.