Photographer Alina Smutko recalls the first day of the full-scale invasion
Photographer Alina Smutko was in Kyiv on 24 February 2022. She recalls that she had not expected such a development and had only packed her bug-out bag because her friends asked. Alina found out about the outbreak of full-scale war at four in the morning, after the first explosions in Kyiv.
"I got a call from my boss, who I used to work with in the Suspilne's Digital Department, and then work began. I was responsible for the digital security of Suspilne's social media, and I was in contact with our offices in various cities, including Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, all day long. The first day of the war, I hardly photographed," recalls Alina Smutko.
In the evening, the photographer packed up her camera and took the tram to the newsroom. The department's journalists needed help. All the employees of the Suspilne broadcaster joined in to monitor the events.
"I just went out with my camera from time to time. I didn't know how much damage these weapons can do and how safe it is to go outdoors. My colleagues and I used to go for coffee to the cafes still open on Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti," Alina says. "I took some photos of the deserted Khreshchatyk and Maidan. I had a feeling that these might be my last photos of Kyiv".
In the following days, the photographer talked on the phone with her family in another city and often went to the station to say goodbye to her friends. "Those days you could shoot anywhere, no one asked for ID. So I did a lot of shooting at the railway station. Then I went to Poltava to see my family. We arranged a safe place at home, gathered documents and filled the car. It was difficult to leave my son, even though he was with his grandparents. I tried to do some work in the city, but the people around me were very tense and called the police just because I was passing by with my camera. I simply refused to go outside with my camera until my return to Kyiv in early March," Smutko says.
Alina Smutko's work changed dramatically after the Russian invasion. She used to work on sports shoots and long-term social projects. For example, she did a large photo project about parents raising children with disabilities and their lives during the quarantine. "I did a lot of sports photography, a lot - it was probably half of all my photography in general," the photographer recalls. A few months after the Great War began, Alina Smutko started shooting mostly the latest news.
"Last summer, we were working on some big stories that took a couple of weeks to shoot. But when I got a job with an international photo agency, I went back to current news," says Smutko. She adds that none of the projects she worked on before the war continued. One exception was a story about teams playing American football in Ukraine. "I invited my colleagues from SuspilneSport to have a look at what the players of that league do now. Many have left the sport and joined the army. Unfortunately, some of them have already died," says Alina Smutko. "Coming back to these people and sharing about their new important job was very important for me."
The project is realised with the support of media ЗМІN.
The material was worked on:
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Site Manager: Marusya Maruzhenko
Read also: 9 Ukrainian photographers share and show how the great invasion began
Photographer Alina Smutko recalls the first day of the full-scale invasion
Photographer Alina Smutko was in Kyiv on 24 February 2022. She recalls that she had not expected such a development and had only packed her bug-out bag because her friends asked. Alina found out about the outbreak of full-scale war at four in the morning, after the first explosions in Kyiv.
"I got a call from my boss, who I used to work with in the Suspilne's Digital Department, and then work began. I was responsible for the digital security of Suspilne's social media, and I was in contact with our offices in various cities, including Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, all day long. The first day of the war, I hardly photographed," recalls Alina Smutko.
In the evening, the photographer packed up her camera and took the tram to the newsroom. The department's journalists needed help. All the employees of the Suspilne broadcaster joined in to monitor the events.
"I just went out with my camera from time to time. I didn't know how much damage these weapons can do and how safe it is to go outdoors. My colleagues and I used to go for coffee to the cafes still open on Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti," Alina says. "I took some photos of the deserted Khreshchatyk and Maidan. I had a feeling that these might be my last photos of Kyiv".
In the following days, the photographer talked on the phone with her family in another city and often went to the station to say goodbye to her friends. "Those days you could shoot anywhere, no one asked for ID. So I did a lot of shooting at the railway station. Then I went to Poltava to see my family. We arranged a safe place at home, gathered documents and filled the car. It was difficult to leave my son, even though he was with his grandparents. I tried to do some work in the city, but the people around me were very tense and called the police just because I was passing by with my camera. I simply refused to go outside with my camera until my return to Kyiv in early March," Smutko says.
Alina Smutko's work changed dramatically after the Russian invasion. She used to work on sports shoots and long-term social projects. For example, she did a large photo project about parents raising children with disabilities and their lives during the quarantine. "I did a lot of sports photography, a lot - it was probably half of all my photography in general," the photographer recalls. A few months after the Great War began, Alina Smutko started shooting mostly the latest news.
"Last summer, we were working on some big stories that took a couple of weeks to shoot. But when I got a job with an international photo agency, I went back to current news," says Smutko. She adds that none of the projects she worked on before the war continued. One exception was a story about teams playing American football in Ukraine. "I invited my colleagues from SuspilneSport to have a look at what the players of that league do now. Many have left the sport and joined the army. Unfortunately, some of them have already died," says Alina Smutko. "Coming back to these people and sharing about their new important job was very important for me."
The project is realised with the support of media ЗМІN.
The material was worked on:
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Site Manager: Marusya Maruzhenko
Read also: 9 Ukrainian photographers share and show how the great invasion began
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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