When The Smoke Clears

• Prize
  Silver in Analog / Film/Nature / Landscape
• Photographer
  Svet Jaqueline
• Agency / Studio
  Freelancer
• Technical Info
  Leica SL-S2 24-70mm
• Photo Date
  2022-2025

When I first arrived in Ukraine at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, it was completely foreign to me. Never had I seen such grief, violence, and death. It was months of sorrow that felt compounded during the long weeks spent in Bucha, Donbas, and Kharkiv. This past year has allowed for a deeper perspective, an integration of everyday moments that seem to provide relief from the never-ending tragedy. The message now feels more abstract than just what war looks like- it is what surviving a war feels like. Asking the question, what future is possible when nothing feels real?