Warning! The material contains sensitive information and the photographs contain scenes of violence that may shock you.
On the eve of the Russian army's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, photographer Roman Pylypiy was shooting the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The photographer has been living and working in China since 2017. It took him several days to get to Kyiv.
'I was photographing the Olympics at the time and had to go through quarantine to get back to Beijing. The war actually started while I was still in quarantine, so I couldn't go to Ukraine right away,' the photographer recalls. ' For me, it was not a question of whether to go to Ukraine or not, I immediately decided to go. I couldn't fly directly to Ukraine because the airspace was already closed.'
Roman says that the journey to Kyiv was very long, with thousands of kilometers and several countries to cover.
'It was not easy to get to Kyiv at that time: I had to find a special flight and tickets. I flew to Paris, from there to Poland, and there I was lucky enough to find an evacuation train that was carrying people and was supposed to return to Kyiv. The train was empty, there were only a few men who were also returning to Ukraine from Europe to join the army,' the photographer explains.
In fact, in the early days of the war, it was very difficult to work, to go out with a camera. Both the military and the civilians were suspicious of people with cameras. Before filming, you had to explain your purpose and behave very carefully, because there were a lot of people with weapons on the streets of Kyiv, and in the first weeks everything was very chaotic,' - Roman recalls his first emotions about Kyiv.
He adds that it was not easy to work as many events were happening at the same time - shelling of the city and active hostilities around it.
'My colleagues and I used to drive around Kyiv in a car and just follow what was happening in the city. We tried to make small stories, traveled to the Kyiv region, and to Irpin, and filmed the evacuation. In fact, the first month was very chaotic, there was a lot of shelling and we worked from early morning until curfew,' says the photographer.
'In those days there were no agreements with press spokesmen or requests, we had to negotiate personally and have good contacts. Sometimes it was a chance meeting. That's how I met the guys from the anti-terrorist unit who were standing near Brovary. We were passing a checkpoint where the military were, and we just asked if we could stay with them,' Roman recalls. 'At that time they were expecting Russian attacks, nobody knew exactly what to expect. We spent a few days with them, filming their lives and their work. Everything was based on such simple arrangements, when the military understood who you were and why you were here, what the photographer's work was for. The military were even happy that we were showing their lives and how they were defending Kyiv and our country'.
The photographer says that in the first month of the full-scale invasion, attention was focused on the besieged capital, and later he travelled to Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv.
'The first month I was shooting mostly in Kyiv and around the city, in Irpin, and travelled to Brovary. Towards the end of March I went to Zaporizhzhia to film the evacuation from besieged Mariupol: people were breaking through Russian positions to leave the shattered city. There was an evacuation assembly point in Zaporizhzhia. I also filmed in Kharkiv and the region. When the Kyiv region was liberated, I immediately returned to Kyiv and filmed all the horrors that were happening there,' the photographer explains.
Photographer Roman Pylypiy says he has taken thousands of photos and many of them are close to his heart. But there is one photo of the sisters from Bucha that is particularly precious to him.
It was a finalist in the POY (Photographer of the Year) competition in the 'War in Ukraine: News' category.
'It's hard to pick one photo out of thousands. But I remember one moment in the first days of the liberation of Bucha. On one of the streets, I saw two women hugging each other and crying. I took their picture and asked them about their story,' says the photographer. 'It turned out that the women were sisters who lived in Bucha during the occupation, but in different parts of the city and could not meet. In those days it was fatal to leave the house. This was their first post-occupation meeting. The women had not seen each other for 42 days. This is a symbolic photograph for me. This is a story with a happy ending.'
Roman Pylypiy is a Ukrainian freelance photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers since 2023.
From 2017 to 2022 he lived and worked in Beijing, China.
For many years he worked with the EPA agency, then with Getty Images. Roman is now a freelancer with AFP.
The photographer has won several major awards: Photographer of the Year, POY Asia 2022, NPPA award winner, and nominee for The Guardian Photographer of the Year in 2019 and 2022.
In 2023, his photo of Bucha was a finalist in the POY competition.
Photographer's social networks:
Facebook
Instagram
We would like to remind you that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has launched a series of materials dedicated to the key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is being implemented with the support of the ЗМІN.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Warning! The material contains sensitive information and the photographs contain scenes of violence that may shock you.
On the eve of the Russian army's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, photographer Roman Pylypiy was shooting the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The photographer has been living and working in China since 2017. It took him several days to get to Kyiv.
'I was photographing the Olympics at the time and had to go through quarantine to get back to Beijing. The war actually started while I was still in quarantine, so I couldn't go to Ukraine right away,' the photographer recalls. ' For me, it was not a question of whether to go to Ukraine or not, I immediately decided to go. I couldn't fly directly to Ukraine because the airspace was already closed.'
Roman says that the journey to Kyiv was very long, with thousands of kilometers and several countries to cover.
'It was not easy to get to Kyiv at that time: I had to find a special flight and tickets. I flew to Paris, from there to Poland, and there I was lucky enough to find an evacuation train that was carrying people and was supposed to return to Kyiv. The train was empty, there were only a few men who were also returning to Ukraine from Europe to join the army,' the photographer explains.
In fact, in the early days of the war, it was very difficult to work, to go out with a camera. Both the military and the civilians were suspicious of people with cameras. Before filming, you had to explain your purpose and behave very carefully, because there were a lot of people with weapons on the streets of Kyiv, and in the first weeks everything was very chaotic,' - Roman recalls his first emotions about Kyiv.
He adds that it was not easy to work as many events were happening at the same time - shelling of the city and active hostilities around it.
'My colleagues and I used to drive around Kyiv in a car and just follow what was happening in the city. We tried to make small stories, traveled to the Kyiv region, and to Irpin, and filmed the evacuation. In fact, the first month was very chaotic, there was a lot of shelling and we worked from early morning until curfew,' says the photographer.
'In those days there were no agreements with press spokesmen or requests, we had to negotiate personally and have good contacts. Sometimes it was a chance meeting. That's how I met the guys from the anti-terrorist unit who were standing near Brovary. We were passing a checkpoint where the military were, and we just asked if we could stay with them,' Roman recalls. 'At that time they were expecting Russian attacks, nobody knew exactly what to expect. We spent a few days with them, filming their lives and their work. Everything was based on such simple arrangements, when the military understood who you were and why you were here, what the photographer's work was for. The military were even happy that we were showing their lives and how they were defending Kyiv and our country'.
The photographer says that in the first month of the full-scale invasion, attention was focused on the besieged capital, and later he travelled to Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv.
'The first month I was shooting mostly in Kyiv and around the city, in Irpin, and travelled to Brovary. Towards the end of March I went to Zaporizhzhia to film the evacuation from besieged Mariupol: people were breaking through Russian positions to leave the shattered city. There was an evacuation assembly point in Zaporizhzhia. I also filmed in Kharkiv and the region. When the Kyiv region was liberated, I immediately returned to Kyiv and filmed all the horrors that were happening there,' the photographer explains.
Photographer Roman Pylypiy says he has taken thousands of photos and many of them are close to his heart. But there is one photo of the sisters from Bucha that is particularly precious to him.
It was a finalist in the POY (Photographer of the Year) competition in the 'War in Ukraine: News' category.
'It's hard to pick one photo out of thousands. But I remember one moment in the first days of the liberation of Bucha. On one of the streets, I saw two women hugging each other and crying. I took their picture and asked them about their story,' says the photographer. 'It turned out that the women were sisters who lived in Bucha during the occupation, but in different parts of the city and could not meet. In those days it was fatal to leave the house. This was their first post-occupation meeting. The women had not seen each other for 42 days. This is a symbolic photograph for me. This is a story with a happy ending.'
Roman Pylypiy is a Ukrainian freelance photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers since 2023.
From 2017 to 2022 he lived and worked in Beijing, China.
For many years he worked with the EPA agency, then with Getty Images. Roman is now a freelancer with AFP.
The photographer has won several major awards: Photographer of the Year, POY Asia 2022, NPPA award winner, and nominee for The Guardian Photographer of the Year in 2019 and 2022.
In 2023, his photo of Bucha was a finalist in the POY competition.
Photographer's social networks:
Facebook
Instagram
We would like to remind you that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has launched a series of materials dedicated to the key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memoirs and photographs of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is being implemented with the support of the ЗМІN.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
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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