We continue with a series of interviews with professional Ukrainian documentarians.
Oksana Parafeniuk and Sasha Maslov told whether the war in Ukraine ceased to interest the foreign reader, how requests to documentary filmmakers were transformed and how their personal view of photo-documentary has changed.
How did the war affect the frequency of photographers being invited to exhibitions, and is this related to the number and emotional content of the shots taken?
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“Before the invasion, I worked every day since December and filmed a lot of Ukrainians on the eve of the invasion. Basically, there were a lot of stories about territorial defense. And five good shot frames of those events toured a lot of exhibitions. It always seemed a little strange to me... For example, my photos with wooden weapons, portraits.
By this example, I wanted to say that there was so much interest in Ukraine in 2022, that there were a lot of invitations, despite the fact that I did not have such an array of photos as most other photographers, there were still a lot of exhibitions, significantly more than now. And now, at least in my case, there are fewer of them. Maybe there are just as many of them, but they just don't call me there anymore, because there are still a lot of photographers.”
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“I am probably the strangest photographer of this time of the invasion, because I did not capture any aftermath of the arrivals. I am more interested in other stories that take place in Kiev, which seem like just a normal life, but it is not a normal life. Some stories outside of Kiev. It is not always something very dramatic or very visual, and it is very often difficult to take off.
For example, I shot a story for The Washington Post about how wounded servicemen find intimate relationships with their partners again. Visually, they were already injured, but I did not shoot them on the battlefield or in the first days in the hospital. I filmed one family in the Volyn region, where my wife came to her husband in the hospital after amputating his two legs. When we did this story, they had already had a baby. You arrive for half a day and you have to take a portrait, his history at the front, his wounds... And all this must be contained in one photo! I don't know what kind of photo it is. It is difficult, but at the same time it is important to shoot. The stories of ordinary life seem... Will it be interesting for anyone to watch? Will it impress a person at all? Well, it's just people at home. No one comes to shoot us.”
Such stories are not always visually expressive, but it is important to shoot them in order to show the human side of war. — Oksana Parafeniuk
How to film the return of Ukrainian prisoners so that it does not lose its meaning over time and speaks not only to the Western audience, but also to the people who will look at these pictures 100 years from now?
Sasha Maslov:
“Any event, even a dramatic one, has certain expected elements. My task was to write a story about how this happens. I can't think about how it was before or will be later, because my task is to tell a story on this particular day.
From an ethical point of view, this is also a special shooting, because people are in a very heightened emotional state. There was a case when a Ukrainian serviceman could not believe that he was exchanged. Perhaps he was deceived before, because the Russians practice such operations: they say that they lead to an exchange, and then simply transported to another colony. Or they say that they lead to the execution, and then return to the cell. I don't know if it happened to him, but he couldn't believe he had been returned.
Of course, here comes the question: if you interview him at this point, how much does it hurt him? As a photographer, I try to be very careful with people who are in a state of high emotional tension. But at the same time, we need to tell these stories. These are the most dramatic stories to show. My formula for working in this case is to work really fast, and try not to break boundaries when you become a trauma to a person even greater than they are going through.”
Don't you think foreigners tell our story better than we do?
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“In my opinion, in visual photography it depends on the personality of each photographer. A foreigner can come and notice something that we no longer notice, because for us it has become commonplace.
Storytelling is everyone's personal experience. It is formed under the influence of upbringing, culture, gender and other factors. It cannot be said that it is bad when our story is told by someone from abroad.”
Sasha Maslov:
“Analyzing personal cooperation with the media, I cannot say that foreigners are preferred. The most important factor is professionalism. Many Ukrainians own it, which gives them the opportunity to work with these media, not ethnicity. Of course, Ukrainian roots provide certain advantages, because it provides an understanding of the context, a deep vision and knowledge of the language. However, I emphasize that the key factor for success is professionalism.”
What story about our experience can be told in a single series of photos when we find ourselves safe?
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“I hope that Ukrainian photographers will not leave their business. We have to keep working, because millions of small and big stories about this war have yet to be told. Who will remove the families affected a year or three after the war? These events affected their entire lives. How to shoot it? This is a difficult question, but we have to find an answer.”
Sasha Maslov:
“We will talk and film the consequences of this war for many years to come, even when it is over. It is part of our lives, part of who we are. Our children and grandchildren may get tired of hearing about the war, but we cannot be silent. We need to talk about what we have seen and experienced so that nothing like this happens again.”
We are grateful Work.ua for supporting and assisting in strengthening the voices of Ukrainian documentary filmmakers.
Thank you.
Sasha Maslov— Ukrainian photographer, portraitist and documentarian. Sasha has lived and worked in New York City for more than 10 years. He collaborates with publications such as The New York Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, is the author of numerous editorial materials and portraits that have become iconic in the media sphere. His documentary projects have been honored with awards, including the Sony World Photo Awards and LensCulture.
Oksana Parafeniuk— an independent documentary photographer whose work has been published by the Washington Post, NBC, Women Photograph, Newsweek and others.
Elena Guseynova— Ukrainian writer, radio host, radio producer and moderator of the meeting. Since 2016, he has been working on Radio Culture (Social). She is currently the editor-in-chief of the Editorial Radio Theater and Literary Programs.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
We continue with a series of interviews with professional Ukrainian documentarians.
Oksana Parafeniuk and Sasha Maslov told whether the war in Ukraine ceased to interest the foreign reader, how requests to documentary filmmakers were transformed and how their personal view of photo-documentary has changed.
How did the war affect the frequency of photographers being invited to exhibitions, and is this related to the number and emotional content of the shots taken?
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“Before the invasion, I worked every day since December and filmed a lot of Ukrainians on the eve of the invasion. Basically, there were a lot of stories about territorial defense. And five good shot frames of those events toured a lot of exhibitions. It always seemed a little strange to me... For example, my photos with wooden weapons, portraits.
By this example, I wanted to say that there was so much interest in Ukraine in 2022, that there were a lot of invitations, despite the fact that I did not have such an array of photos as most other photographers, there were still a lot of exhibitions, significantly more than now. And now, at least in my case, there are fewer of them. Maybe there are just as many of them, but they just don't call me there anymore, because there are still a lot of photographers.”
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“I am probably the strangest photographer of this time of the invasion, because I did not capture any aftermath of the arrivals. I am more interested in other stories that take place in Kiev, which seem like just a normal life, but it is not a normal life. Some stories outside of Kiev. It is not always something very dramatic or very visual, and it is very often difficult to take off.
For example, I shot a story for The Washington Post about how wounded servicemen find intimate relationships with their partners again. Visually, they were already injured, but I did not shoot them on the battlefield or in the first days in the hospital. I filmed one family in the Volyn region, where my wife came to her husband in the hospital after amputating his two legs. When we did this story, they had already had a baby. You arrive for half a day and you have to take a portrait, his history at the front, his wounds... And all this must be contained in one photo! I don't know what kind of photo it is. It is difficult, but at the same time it is important to shoot. The stories of ordinary life seem... Will it be interesting for anyone to watch? Will it impress a person at all? Well, it's just people at home. No one comes to shoot us.”
Such stories are not always visually expressive, but it is important to shoot them in order to show the human side of war. — Oksana Parafeniuk
How to film the return of Ukrainian prisoners so that it does not lose its meaning over time and speaks not only to the Western audience, but also to the people who will look at these pictures 100 years from now?
Sasha Maslov:
“Any event, even a dramatic one, has certain expected elements. My task was to write a story about how this happens. I can't think about how it was before or will be later, because my task is to tell a story on this particular day.
From an ethical point of view, this is also a special shooting, because people are in a very heightened emotional state. There was a case when a Ukrainian serviceman could not believe that he was exchanged. Perhaps he was deceived before, because the Russians practice such operations: they say that they lead to an exchange, and then simply transported to another colony. Or they say that they lead to the execution, and then return to the cell. I don't know if it happened to him, but he couldn't believe he had been returned.
Of course, here comes the question: if you interview him at this point, how much does it hurt him? As a photographer, I try to be very careful with people who are in a state of high emotional tension. But at the same time, we need to tell these stories. These are the most dramatic stories to show. My formula for working in this case is to work really fast, and try not to break boundaries when you become a trauma to a person even greater than they are going through.”
Don't you think foreigners tell our story better than we do?
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“In my opinion, in visual photography it depends on the personality of each photographer. A foreigner can come and notice something that we no longer notice, because for us it has become commonplace.
Storytelling is everyone's personal experience. It is formed under the influence of upbringing, culture, gender and other factors. It cannot be said that it is bad when our story is told by someone from abroad.”
Sasha Maslov:
“Analyzing personal cooperation with the media, I cannot say that foreigners are preferred. The most important factor is professionalism. Many Ukrainians own it, which gives them the opportunity to work with these media, not ethnicity. Of course, Ukrainian roots provide certain advantages, because it provides an understanding of the context, a deep vision and knowledge of the language. However, I emphasize that the key factor for success is professionalism.”
What story about our experience can be told in a single series of photos when we find ourselves safe?
Oksana Parafeniuk:
“I hope that Ukrainian photographers will not leave their business. We have to keep working, because millions of small and big stories about this war have yet to be told. Who will remove the families affected a year or three after the war? These events affected their entire lives. How to shoot it? This is a difficult question, but we have to find an answer.”
Sasha Maslov:
“We will talk and film the consequences of this war for many years to come, even when it is over. It is part of our lives, part of who we are. Our children and grandchildren may get tired of hearing about the war, but we cannot be silent. We need to talk about what we have seen and experienced so that nothing like this happens again.”
We are grateful Work.ua for supporting and assisting in strengthening the voices of Ukrainian documentary filmmakers.
Thank you.
Sasha Maslov— Ukrainian photographer, portraitist and documentarian. Sasha has lived and worked in New York City for more than 10 years. He collaborates with publications such as The New York Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, is the author of numerous editorial materials and portraits that have become iconic in the media sphere. His documentary projects have been honored with awards, including the Sony World Photo Awards and LensCulture.
Oksana Parafeniuk— an independent documentary photographer whose work has been published by the Washington Post, NBC, Women Photograph, Newsweek and others.
Elena Guseynova— Ukrainian writer, radio host, radio producer and moderator of the meeting. Since 2016, he has been working on Radio Culture (Social). She is currently the editor-in-chief of the Editorial Radio Theater and Literary Programs.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
UAPP is an independent association of professional Ukrainian photographers, designed to protect their interests, support, develop and promote Ukrainian photography as an important element of national culture.
UAPP's activities span educational, social, research and cultural initiatives, as well as book publishing.
UAPP represents Ukrainian professional photography in the international photographic community and is an official member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) — an international organization representing more than 50,000 professional photographers in Europe and other countries around the world.
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