Photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Heorhiy Ivanchenko won the MYPH PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE 2024 photo contest with a series of images titled Warhole. This series was created through a peephole and offers a different perspective on war, leaving room for imagination and emphasizing details. In it, Ivanchenko combines documentary with artistic elements to convey the global context of war through a limited perspective.
Heorhii Ivanchenko admits that the impetus for the Warhole photo series was a conversation he overheard about the disillusionment with classical photography. “You often hear people talking about exhibitions of photographs from the war: “It's the same old thing again, it's not interesting!”. It's painful, but to tell the truth, many exhibitions have indeed become monotonous, full of raw, informative photography that doesn't always touch the viewer on an emotional level. And photography should not only speak with facts, but also evoke feelings and conceptual understanding,” says Ivanchenko.
Heorhiy found inspiration for his technical solution in street culture and hip-hop parties of the 80s and 90s. “I saw photos from those parties taken with a Fish Eye, a wide-angle lens. They conveyed a special effect of presence, and I thought: why not shoot the war in the same way? Why not use this style, but in a different context?”
The solution came unexpectedly. “A friend of mine from Chisinau sent me some photos where an American had attached a door peephole to the camera lens. I looked at it and said: “This is exactly what I was looking for!”. I just went to the store and bought a door peephole. It wasn't a perfect setup - the image was a little shaky, but the result was worth it.”
The Warhole photo series was created in parallel with Ivanchenko's reporting work. “I was working on a report near Toretsk, on the road that runs from Kostiantynivka to Pokrovsk,” he says. ”It was an important road for our troops, which is intensively shelled every day. At the same time I was shooting with another camera, using a door peephole.”
The idea for the series arose spontaneously, but gained conceptual content during the process of realization. “I started shooting at the end of July and finished in August 2024. It was a search for new artistic means to convey the war. I see a sense in it, there is visual beauty, and most importantly, there is a semantic load.”
The process of selecting photos for the Warhole series was both technical and intuitive, says Heorhiy Ivanchenko. “While shooting, I began to understand the technical nuances: by reducing the aperture, you can increase the space in the picture, and by increasing it, the frame becomes smaller. But there was always not enough light - I had to either increase the ISO or decrease the shutter speed, and sometimes add a flash for some shots,” the photographer says.
According to him, working with exposure in low light conditions was particularly difficult. “Two or three photos in the series definitely use an additional flash to bring out the details.”
One of the most important photographs in the series is “Sunflowers”. “I took it on the road under fire. This road was then used by dozens of cars, although now it is hardly used. I was interested in shooting something conceptual, in the spirit of a party. This is a different picture that conveys reality in a different way, and I like it.”
The process of selecting the photos was quick and natural: “I didn't know exactly how many shots there should be in the series, but several of them immediately seemed obvious. I chose the ones that were closest to my spirit, the strongest, and those that together create a coherent picture. I ended up with ten, and I thought: “Great, I don't need any more.”
One of the shots came as a surprise to Ivanchenko - a picture of artillery coming out near Pokrovsk. “As usual, I was shooting with the main camera, hoping to catch the moment of the explosion. But when I looked at the pictures, the main camera failed to capture this shot. However, it worked on the second camera with the door peephole.” The photographer says that this shot became special to him because it was accidental, he did not expect to catch it.
One of the most emotional images in Heorhiy Ivanchenko's series is a photo of a man putting out a fire in a field. “This is the village of Nova Poltavka, about five or six kilometers from the front line. A field of wheat caught fire, probably from a drone. I can't confirm this as a journalist because I didn't see the wreckage, but the locals said so. My colleague and I ran there - three kilometers across the field - because we saw a tractor and farmers trying to put out the fire. They were ordinary workers saving their field.”
Working on this series, the photojournalist took a different look at natural details.
“I noticed that I like to shoot plants through the peephole. It gives them a new meaning, shows them in a different way. For example, I have a picture of three trees. At first glance, they look like ordinary trees, but when you look at them, they evoke some special pleasure. I can't explain it, but it's true,” he explains. ”The photo with the tree and the burning field is one of my favorite photos. The smoke from the fire rose so high that it blocked the sun a little bit, and this created an incredible effect through the doorway. The light glints and the image looks almost divine. I even printed it out and gave it to my father.”
The photo with daisies is another important symbol in the series. The picture shows a hangar without a roof, and daisies are blooming against its background. “These could be just flowers under the sky, if not for the war. War leaves its mark even in the simplest things.”
Ivanchenko also shared a personal story about the photo “Sunflowers”. “My father's birthday is October 1, and my mother's is October 3. I decided to print a photo for them and said: “I give you flowers!”.
Heorhii Ivanchenko unexpectedly chose the title for his series, inspired by a chance meeting. “I was sitting in a coffee shop thinking about how to name my work. It seems to me that shooting through a peephole is more of a fun thing that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I didn't take it seriously and still don't. But while I was sitting there, a guy came into the coffee shop wearing a T-shirt that said “Warhole” on it. I thought it was a play on words: “war” means war, and “hole” means the hole through which we look at war. But the name 'Andy' was also on the shirt, which immediately made me think of Andy Warhol.”
Thus, Warhol, known for popularizing simple things and making them into a cult in art, became the perfect inspiration for the title of the series. “Andy made art out of banal things, turning them into something iconic. I thought it was the perfect title for a series that uses a pop art approach to highlight war.” Despite his self-irony, Ivanchenko is aware of the ambiguity of this approach. “I can condemn this approach, but it allows me to present the message about the war in a different way, not mindlessly, but with a new perspective. It was an experiment, and I don't know exactly how I feel about it, but I know one thing: I like it visually. This series appeared in parallel with my main work as a photojournalist, and I was curious how people would react to it.”
“Is this my first job in the party? Yes, it is absolutely my first,” says Ivanchenko. As for his plans for the future, he says he doesn't have a clear vision yet: “Maybe I will continue to shoot with the peephole and develop the series into a project or even make a mini-book. But I'm not sure if I should go this way. I'm drawn to explore new approaches.”
The photographer emphasizes that spontaneity is more important to him than conceptual work. “I don't plan in advance what I'm going to shoot. I react to what I see in the moment, just like in reportage photography. Artists intervene in the frame, create a concept, but this is not close to me. I am a reporter, I go and shoot the war.”
Heorhiy Ivanchenko is a Ukrainian photographer who has been working as a freelance reporter in the field of documentary and journalistic photography since February 2022. From the first months of the invasion, he started shooting for the Associated Press and the European Pressphoto Agency. Starting from Borodyansky district, where Heorhiy was born, he continued along the front line: Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions. Now his attention is focused on Donetsk region. The turning point in his photography was the almost month he spent in Bakhmut. In December and January, he documented the lives of the townspeople with a backpack and a sleeping bag, sharing his life with local volunteers, medics, military personnel, and firefighters in basements. In April 2023, while working on a story about Chasiv Yar, his car was shot at and destroyed by a Russian shell. Despite this, the author continues to reflect on the many situations that have come his way and is working on his first project, Way of War (working title). The photographer's Instagram.
We worked on the material:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
Photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Heorhiy Ivanchenko won the MYPH PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE 2024 photo contest with a series of images titled Warhole. This series was created through a peephole and offers a different perspective on war, leaving room for imagination and emphasizing details. In it, Ivanchenko combines documentary with artistic elements to convey the global context of war through a limited perspective.
Heorhii Ivanchenko admits that the impetus for the Warhole photo series was a conversation he overheard about the disillusionment with classical photography. “You often hear people talking about exhibitions of photographs from the war: “It's the same old thing again, it's not interesting!”. It's painful, but to tell the truth, many exhibitions have indeed become monotonous, full of raw, informative photography that doesn't always touch the viewer on an emotional level. And photography should not only speak with facts, but also evoke feelings and conceptual understanding,” says Ivanchenko.
Heorhiy found inspiration for his technical solution in street culture and hip-hop parties of the 80s and 90s. “I saw photos from those parties taken with a Fish Eye, a wide-angle lens. They conveyed a special effect of presence, and I thought: why not shoot the war in the same way? Why not use this style, but in a different context?”
The solution came unexpectedly. “A friend of mine from Chisinau sent me some photos where an American had attached a door peephole to the camera lens. I looked at it and said: “This is exactly what I was looking for!”. I just went to the store and bought a door peephole. It wasn't a perfect setup - the image was a little shaky, but the result was worth it.”
The Warhole photo series was created in parallel with Ivanchenko's reporting work. “I was working on a report near Toretsk, on the road that runs from Kostiantynivka to Pokrovsk,” he says. ”It was an important road for our troops, which is intensively shelled every day. At the same time I was shooting with another camera, using a door peephole.”
The idea for the series arose spontaneously, but gained conceptual content during the process of realization. “I started shooting at the end of July and finished in August 2024. It was a search for new artistic means to convey the war. I see a sense in it, there is visual beauty, and most importantly, there is a semantic load.”
The process of selecting photos for the Warhole series was both technical and intuitive, says Heorhiy Ivanchenko. “While shooting, I began to understand the technical nuances: by reducing the aperture, you can increase the space in the picture, and by increasing it, the frame becomes smaller. But there was always not enough light - I had to either increase the ISO or decrease the shutter speed, and sometimes add a flash for some shots,” the photographer says.
According to him, working with exposure in low light conditions was particularly difficult. “Two or three photos in the series definitely use an additional flash to bring out the details.”
One of the most important photographs in the series is “Sunflowers”. “I took it on the road under fire. This road was then used by dozens of cars, although now it is hardly used. I was interested in shooting something conceptual, in the spirit of a party. This is a different picture that conveys reality in a different way, and I like it.”
The process of selecting the photos was quick and natural: “I didn't know exactly how many shots there should be in the series, but several of them immediately seemed obvious. I chose the ones that were closest to my spirit, the strongest, and those that together create a coherent picture. I ended up with ten, and I thought: “Great, I don't need any more.”
One of the shots came as a surprise to Ivanchenko - a picture of artillery coming out near Pokrovsk. “As usual, I was shooting with the main camera, hoping to catch the moment of the explosion. But when I looked at the pictures, the main camera failed to capture this shot. However, it worked on the second camera with the door peephole.” The photographer says that this shot became special to him because it was accidental, he did not expect to catch it.
One of the most emotional images in Heorhiy Ivanchenko's series is a photo of a man putting out a fire in a field. “This is the village of Nova Poltavka, about five or six kilometers from the front line. A field of wheat caught fire, probably from a drone. I can't confirm this as a journalist because I didn't see the wreckage, but the locals said so. My colleague and I ran there - three kilometers across the field - because we saw a tractor and farmers trying to put out the fire. They were ordinary workers saving their field.”
Working on this series, the photojournalist took a different look at natural details.
“I noticed that I like to shoot plants through the peephole. It gives them a new meaning, shows them in a different way. For example, I have a picture of three trees. At first glance, they look like ordinary trees, but when you look at them, they evoke some special pleasure. I can't explain it, but it's true,” he explains. ”The photo with the tree and the burning field is one of my favorite photos. The smoke from the fire rose so high that it blocked the sun a little bit, and this created an incredible effect through the doorway. The light glints and the image looks almost divine. I even printed it out and gave it to my father.”
The photo with daisies is another important symbol in the series. The picture shows a hangar without a roof, and daisies are blooming against its background. “These could be just flowers under the sky, if not for the war. War leaves its mark even in the simplest things.”
Ivanchenko also shared a personal story about the photo “Sunflowers”. “My father's birthday is October 1, and my mother's is October 3. I decided to print a photo for them and said: “I give you flowers!”.
Heorhii Ivanchenko unexpectedly chose the title for his series, inspired by a chance meeting. “I was sitting in a coffee shop thinking about how to name my work. It seems to me that shooting through a peephole is more of a fun thing that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I didn't take it seriously and still don't. But while I was sitting there, a guy came into the coffee shop wearing a T-shirt that said “Warhole” on it. I thought it was a play on words: “war” means war, and “hole” means the hole through which we look at war. But the name 'Andy' was also on the shirt, which immediately made me think of Andy Warhol.”
Thus, Warhol, known for popularizing simple things and making them into a cult in art, became the perfect inspiration for the title of the series. “Andy made art out of banal things, turning them into something iconic. I thought it was the perfect title for a series that uses a pop art approach to highlight war.” Despite his self-irony, Ivanchenko is aware of the ambiguity of this approach. “I can condemn this approach, but it allows me to present the message about the war in a different way, not mindlessly, but with a new perspective. It was an experiment, and I don't know exactly how I feel about it, but I know one thing: I like it visually. This series appeared in parallel with my main work as a photojournalist, and I was curious how people would react to it.”
“Is this my first job in the party? Yes, it is absolutely my first,” says Ivanchenko. As for his plans for the future, he says he doesn't have a clear vision yet: “Maybe I will continue to shoot with the peephole and develop the series into a project or even make a mini-book. But I'm not sure if I should go this way. I'm drawn to explore new approaches.”
The photographer emphasizes that spontaneity is more important to him than conceptual work. “I don't plan in advance what I'm going to shoot. I react to what I see in the moment, just like in reportage photography. Artists intervene in the frame, create a concept, but this is not close to me. I am a reporter, I go and shoot the war.”
Heorhiy Ivanchenko is a Ukrainian photographer who has been working as a freelance reporter in the field of documentary and journalistic photography since February 2022. From the first months of the invasion, he started shooting for the Associated Press and the European Pressphoto Agency. Starting from Borodyansky district, where Heorhiy was born, he continued along the front line: Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions. Now his attention is focused on Donetsk region. The turning point in his photography was the almost month he spent in Bakhmut. In December and January, he documented the lives of the townspeople with a backpack and a sleeping bag, sharing his life with local volunteers, medics, military personnel, and firefighters in basements. In April 2023, while working on a story about Chasiv Yar, his car was shot at and destroyed by a Russian shell. Despite this, the author continues to reflect on the many situations that have come his way and is working on his first project, Way of War (working title). The photographer's Instagram.
We worked on the material:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
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.
