Yevhen Borysovskyi, a new member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, embodies two roles: serviceman and photographer. Appointed as the head of the communications department of the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade in Zhytomyr, he never planned to pursue a career in either the military or photography, but life and war had other plans.
“At one point, I wanted a stable salary and an office job, rather than engaging in creativity with unpredictable income. That’s why photography remained a hobby that occasionally brought in extra earnings. However, the hobby ultimately took over almost 10 years ago. Even in war, I picked up a camera instead of a rifle,” Yevhen says.
Yevhen’s first love for photography came in childhood when his father took amateur photos of him and his sister. “We would develop the photos together in a darkroom with red light. It created close bonds back then, but I didn’t take it seriously,” the photographer recalls. A turning point came in 1998 when his father bought an Olympus DSLR camera with 1.4 megapixels. “I still have those photos stored on my computer. You could say I’m the archivist of our 10th and 11th grade school memories. Now we have cameras in our phones, and we take countless unnecessary photos throughout the day. Back then, you had to carry two separate devices,” he says about his early works.
By the late 2000s, he had replaced his simple point-and-shoot camera with a DSLR, which occasionally served as a ticket to free entry at festivals or discos. “That’s when I realized that a camera could open certain doors. I remember being allowed on stage at the ‘Chaika’ festival because I had a camera. It was incredible standing there and seeing thousands of people,” he recalls.
In 2008, Yevhen made an important step in his career by working as an editor for a political talk show on the ‘Inter’ TV channel. In addition to his standard duties, he photographed behind-the-scenes moments of the show. It was there that Yevhen met his first mentor, the show’s staff photographer, who had a top-of-the-line Nikon camera with a full set of lenses. “Although he doesn’t know it, he became my mentor, as he explained what makes a good or bad photo,” Yevhen recalls. Thanks to this encounter, he learned how to make money from photography and turn it from a hobby into a profession. Shooting behind-the-scenes for political talk shows introduced Yevhen to press services, and after the show ended, he was offered a position as a personal photographer for the Deputy Prime Minister. “It was a major step—to leave the office and turn my hobby into a job. It was a great school and experience. Constant trips and a fast work pace,” says Yevhen.
In 2014, he was offered the role of a TV camera operator, a new challenge for him. “Many photographers transition into camera work. In the first few months, my employer wasn’t happy because I had no idea how long to hold shots. They promised to teach me, to start in a studio, but in reality, they handed me a camera in the evening and told me to shoot the next morning,” Yevhen recounts. For a photographer, it was a surprise to learn that TV work wasn’t as simple as he had thought: “Directors pick the first shot they get, and it turns out to be the worst. I thought like a photographer—shooting series, making duplicates, and choosing calmly. In the beginning, I had a lot of unusable footage.”
While working in the Verkhovna Rada, Yevhen met a photographer named Lera and a man named Hryhorii Vepryk, who proposed starting a photography agency. “By that time, I had already decided that photography was closer to me than working as a news cameraman, and I was just looking for an opportunity to switch professions. I said negotiating and finding clients wasn’t my thing, but I could shoot,” he explains. Together, they founded a photography agency called The Gate Agency, which eventually grew into a large team and essentially a production company with a rich portfolio.
“I was a bit disappointed that many of my friends didn’t join the military,” Yevhen admits, “but it’s a pleasant surprise when I occasionally meet former colleagues in uniform on the frontlines.”
The last year before the war became a time of change and new pursuits for Yevhen Borysovskyi. After leaving the agency, he decided to focus on sports photography and personal projects. “We had some differences of opinion with my colleagues at the agency, so I focused more on myself and individual work,” he recalls. “Starting from scratch was hard. That’s when I realized the importance of building my personal brand, something I hadn’t invested much in. In fact, I hadn’t invested in it at all. The agency was responsible for finding clients, and I was just an executor.”
This turn of events wasn’t accidental. Yevhen was always looking for new opportunities for self-growth. “I enjoyed shooting sports because of its dynamism and emotions, the energy, victories, and defeats. That’s why, a year before the war, I mostly focused on covering sporting events,” Borysovskyi shares. “It was through this work that I found many new friends who are helping me even now.”
Yevhen was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine on February 26, 2022, after enduring emotional challenges at the onset of the war: “I just couldn’t sit still. It was both fear and a desire to do something. I went to the nearest recruitment office, and they gave me an hour and a half to pack. During the first few days at the training center, you walk around feeling so emotionally drained that you don’t just want to cry—you want to scream and howl. But you can’t.”
Yevhen recalled how, while preparing for mobilization, he grabbed his camera, which later became a crucial tool in his work: “In the rush to pack my backpack, my father told me to take a small camera, the Fuji S-10. On the 12th day at the Yavoriv training ground, we were suddenly sent to our units. That morning, we learned that our barracks and the training ground had been hit by a massive missile strike. Fate spared me. I ended up in the 71st Separate Jaeger Brigade, where I was unofficially appointed as a UAV platoon commander, as we were awaiting changes in the staffing. I probably didn’t pull the camera out of my bag for a few months, but eventually, the command needed photo reports from the training, and I didn’t want to take pictures with a phone. So, I started shooting, and a year later, I was transferred to a newly-formed artillery brigade as the head of the press service, even though I said I wasn’t ready and didn’t want to. But this is the army. There’s no room for ‘want’ or ‘don’t want’ here.”
Yevhen’s experiences came together when the war in Ukraine began. Today, his work in the military and photography is not only about capturing moments but also conveying the atmosphere of the war. "It’s important to me that the photos tell the stories I see on the front lines. They convey the atmosphere. These are not just pictures; they are testimonies. War is quite cinematic, if I can put it that way. There are picturesque and terrifying ‘sets’ and colorful, charismatic ‘actors.’ I don't think future screen adaptations of our struggle will be able to capture all of this. But I see the war in a limited way—just a piece of it, within the responsibilities of my brigade," he emphasizes.
Yevhen is not a fan of photography that lacks a story. He takes photos for himself and for his unit: “These photos are for the guys who are fighting. They’re happy when they see their pictures because it lifts their spirits.” Many of the photos remain as mementos, and some soldiers even ask for portraits in their new uniforms for personal use, like for a Tinder profile.
“I always make a folder with photos for the guys and upload them to the chats, because it's important to be part of the unit, on the same wavelength as them,” says the photographer. This allows Yevhen to maintain a balance between his professional activities and integration into the lives of the military with whom he serves.
The war has influenced his style: the images have become more minimalistic. “Now I have minimal post-processing. Because here the colors themselves are beautiful and self-sufficient and there are few of them. A little orange and a lot of gray, green and black,” says Yevhen. “I always thought that my photos were not bright enough in color,” Yevhen admits. Before the war started, he even enrolled in a color studies course to improve his skills. However, the war changed his plans. “On the second lesson, the war broke out, and I stayed in the same color scheme as before. Fate did not keep me in my palette,” he recalls.
Borysovskyi admits that he sometimes experiences "creative depression." As a press officer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one has to be versatile—writing texts, taking photos, and shooting videos. Serving in artillery, he faces a limited number of subjects to shoot. “We have a couple of types of cannons, and the choice of what to capture isn’t very large,” Yevhen explains.
He compares his work to that of journalist colleagues, who have the opportunity to travel across the entire front line. "I feel professional envy," Borysovskyi admits.
Photographer’s Work in Wartime and Censorship. Borysovskyi’s work as a photographer during the war is closely monitored by censorship. Serving in the airborne assault troops, the photos that appear on the brigade’s official pages undergo strict checks. “The photos you see on the brigade's pages are a compromise: they convey the atmosphere while satisfying the leadership and, most importantly, don’t endanger the guys,” Yevhen explains.
At the same time, Yevhen creates separate shots for his comrades, which are not published officially. This allows him to retain a part of his creative freedom while also meeting military requirements. “If you can’t capture it in one shot, go become a videographer,” he jokes, highlighting his motivation to shoot the best possible photos, even in combat conditions.
Yevhen reflects on his place during the war. "Unfortunately, I underestimate my role in this war because I sometimes feel like a TikTok officer," he says. Borysovskyi emphasizes that, while his profession is important, he feels conflicted: “I’m neither a rear guard nor a front-line fighter—I ride between positions, shoot, and come back. Sometimes I don’t see the point in my work because the guys are making a far more significant contribution to the fight. You take an incredibly cinematic photo that captures the atmosphere, but then you put down the camera and go help the guys.”
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Despite this, Yevhen Borysovskyi emphasizes: “These photographs may not change the weather, they may never be published, but they are important for the people in them and for history,” he says.
Despite the seriousness of the war, sometimes it is the simple moments that resonate most with society. One of Borysovskyi's most popular works was a series of photos of a soldier feeding a cat borscht. “This photo, this photoset, despite all my efforts during the war, was the most popular,” Borysovskyi recalls. This emphasizes the importance of even small moments of humanity that help create an emotional connection between the military and the public.
For Borysovskyi, photography has always been a way to discover new worlds and explore different life situations. “Photos allow you to go to places that are not accessible to mere mortals,” he says, emphasizing the unique opportunity to be in a wide variety of locations.
The work Yevhen did before the war naturally flowed into what he is doing now at the front. But the war has added new challenges, including the need to shoot video, which is now important for the military leadership. “And you're trying to sit on two chairs with one bun,” Borysovskyi jokes, describing how difficult it is to choose between photography and video at critical moments.
Borysovskyi emphasizes that while video is a quicker way to grab attention, photography is more important in the long run. “A photo is one thing, you look at it and it can be illustrated in many places,” he says, ”At the same time, video is quickly forgotten. You can put your heart and soul into a video, edit it for a few minutes, and no one watches it to the end, and you don't understand why.”
The job of press officer Yevhen Borysovskyi is to accompany journalists, but it is not always a satisfying one. As he admits: “And you hear the questions they ask. Tactical and technical characteristics of the gun, etc. It's really frustrating sometimes. Why not talk about life, about personal things? About people? About something deeper?”
Yevhen prefers working with Western journalists, who, in his opinion, focus more on human stories. “I like working with Western journalists, they talk about real life. They ask the soldiers the same questions I would answer myself: “How do you react to the fact that your classmates did not go to war? About society, about the future, about experiences, about home,” he says. These dialogues help not only to talk about the war, but also to highlight the personal experiences of the soldiers.
Yevhen describes his internal conflict when he works in dangerous conditions: “To die for 150 likes. Who needs it? But this is part of the job.” His self-irony reflects the difficulties that press officers sometimes face in the course of their duties.
Yevhen Borysovskyi continues to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and work in the field of visual art, despite the challenges of the current situation. War and social change force everyone to rethink their priorities, but Borysovskyi remains true to his calling. “In 2022, I tried to pick up an assault rifle, but fate still pushed me a camera. Can I still resist it? War, no matter how horrible it sounds, is both beautiful and terrible at the same time. It's something that has always aroused a certain creative excitement in me, when you see all these scenery and destruction. You are ready to stay here. You try to convey this terrible war as best you can. Even if I am demobilized, I am sure I would like to return and film the story of our struggle, but more freely, not limited to the area of performance,” he says.
Yevhen also dreams of filming natural disasters, such as tsunamis or tornadoes, noting that he would be interested to see it with his own eyes. “I would like to take such shots while being inside the elements. But with these desires, I should probably turn to certain specialists,” Yevhen jokes.
Yevhen Borysovskyi is currently the head of the communications department of the 148th separate artillery brigade of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On February 26, 2022, he volunteered. In April 2023, he was transferred to the artillery brigade as a press officer. Until 2016, he perceived photography as a hobby and additional income, until Hryhorii Vepryk suggested creating his own photo agency, The Gate Agency, which would specialize in business photography and production filming.
Yevhen Borisovsky's Instagram.
The material was created by:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Site manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
Yevhen Borysovskyi, a new member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, embodies two roles: serviceman and photographer. Appointed as the head of the communications department of the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade in Zhytomyr, he never planned to pursue a career in either the military or photography, but life and war had other plans.
“At one point, I wanted a stable salary and an office job, rather than engaging in creativity with unpredictable income. That’s why photography remained a hobby that occasionally brought in extra earnings. However, the hobby ultimately took over almost 10 years ago. Even in war, I picked up a camera instead of a rifle,” Yevhen says.
Yevhen’s first love for photography came in childhood when his father took amateur photos of him and his sister. “We would develop the photos together in a darkroom with red light. It created close bonds back then, but I didn’t take it seriously,” the photographer recalls. A turning point came in 1998 when his father bought an Olympus DSLR camera with 1.4 megapixels. “I still have those photos stored on my computer. You could say I’m the archivist of our 10th and 11th grade school memories. Now we have cameras in our phones, and we take countless unnecessary photos throughout the day. Back then, you had to carry two separate devices,” he says about his early works.
By the late 2000s, he had replaced his simple point-and-shoot camera with a DSLR, which occasionally served as a ticket to free entry at festivals or discos. “That’s when I realized that a camera could open certain doors. I remember being allowed on stage at the ‘Chaika’ festival because I had a camera. It was incredible standing there and seeing thousands of people,” he recalls.
In 2008, Yevhen made an important step in his career by working as an editor for a political talk show on the ‘Inter’ TV channel. In addition to his standard duties, he photographed behind-the-scenes moments of the show. It was there that Yevhen met his first mentor, the show’s staff photographer, who had a top-of-the-line Nikon camera with a full set of lenses. “Although he doesn’t know it, he became my mentor, as he explained what makes a good or bad photo,” Yevhen recalls. Thanks to this encounter, he learned how to make money from photography and turn it from a hobby into a profession. Shooting behind-the-scenes for political talk shows introduced Yevhen to press services, and after the show ended, he was offered a position as a personal photographer for the Deputy Prime Minister. “It was a major step—to leave the office and turn my hobby into a job. It was a great school and experience. Constant trips and a fast work pace,” says Yevhen.
In 2014, he was offered the role of a TV camera operator, a new challenge for him. “Many photographers transition into camera work. In the first few months, my employer wasn’t happy because I had no idea how long to hold shots. They promised to teach me, to start in a studio, but in reality, they handed me a camera in the evening and told me to shoot the next morning,” Yevhen recounts. For a photographer, it was a surprise to learn that TV work wasn’t as simple as he had thought: “Directors pick the first shot they get, and it turns out to be the worst. I thought like a photographer—shooting series, making duplicates, and choosing calmly. In the beginning, I had a lot of unusable footage.”
While working in the Verkhovna Rada, Yevhen met a photographer named Lera and a man named Hryhorii Vepryk, who proposed starting a photography agency. “By that time, I had already decided that photography was closer to me than working as a news cameraman, and I was just looking for an opportunity to switch professions. I said negotiating and finding clients wasn’t my thing, but I could shoot,” he explains. Together, they founded a photography agency called The Gate Agency, which eventually grew into a large team and essentially a production company with a rich portfolio.
“I was a bit disappointed that many of my friends didn’t join the military,” Yevhen admits, “but it’s a pleasant surprise when I occasionally meet former colleagues in uniform on the frontlines.”
The last year before the war became a time of change and new pursuits for Yevhen Borysovskyi. After leaving the agency, he decided to focus on sports photography and personal projects. “We had some differences of opinion with my colleagues at the agency, so I focused more on myself and individual work,” he recalls. “Starting from scratch was hard. That’s when I realized the importance of building my personal brand, something I hadn’t invested much in. In fact, I hadn’t invested in it at all. The agency was responsible for finding clients, and I was just an executor.”
This turn of events wasn’t accidental. Yevhen was always looking for new opportunities for self-growth. “I enjoyed shooting sports because of its dynamism and emotions, the energy, victories, and defeats. That’s why, a year before the war, I mostly focused on covering sporting events,” Borysovskyi shares. “It was through this work that I found many new friends who are helping me even now.”
Yevhen was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine on February 26, 2022, after enduring emotional challenges at the onset of the war: “I just couldn’t sit still. It was both fear and a desire to do something. I went to the nearest recruitment office, and they gave me an hour and a half to pack. During the first few days at the training center, you walk around feeling so emotionally drained that you don’t just want to cry—you want to scream and howl. But you can’t.”
Yevhen recalled how, while preparing for mobilization, he grabbed his camera, which later became a crucial tool in his work: “In the rush to pack my backpack, my father told me to take a small camera, the Fuji S-10. On the 12th day at the Yavoriv training ground, we were suddenly sent to our units. That morning, we learned that our barracks and the training ground had been hit by a massive missile strike. Fate spared me. I ended up in the 71st Separate Jaeger Brigade, where I was unofficially appointed as a UAV platoon commander, as we were awaiting changes in the staffing. I probably didn’t pull the camera out of my bag for a few months, but eventually, the command needed photo reports from the training, and I didn’t want to take pictures with a phone. So, I started shooting, and a year later, I was transferred to a newly-formed artillery brigade as the head of the press service, even though I said I wasn’t ready and didn’t want to. But this is the army. There’s no room for ‘want’ or ‘don’t want’ here.”
Yevhen’s experiences came together when the war in Ukraine began. Today, his work in the military and photography is not only about capturing moments but also conveying the atmosphere of the war. "It’s important to me that the photos tell the stories I see on the front lines. They convey the atmosphere. These are not just pictures; they are testimonies. War is quite cinematic, if I can put it that way. There are picturesque and terrifying ‘sets’ and colorful, charismatic ‘actors.’ I don't think future screen adaptations of our struggle will be able to capture all of this. But I see the war in a limited way—just a piece of it, within the responsibilities of my brigade," he emphasizes.
Yevhen is not a fan of photography that lacks a story. He takes photos for himself and for his unit: “These photos are for the guys who are fighting. They’re happy when they see their pictures because it lifts their spirits.” Many of the photos remain as mementos, and some soldiers even ask for portraits in their new uniforms for personal use, like for a Tinder profile.
“I always make a folder with photos for the guys and upload them to the chats, because it's important to be part of the unit, on the same wavelength as them,” says the photographer. This allows Yevhen to maintain a balance between his professional activities and integration into the lives of the military with whom he serves.
The war has influenced his style: the images have become more minimalistic. “Now I have minimal post-processing. Because here the colors themselves are beautiful and self-sufficient and there are few of them. A little orange and a lot of gray, green and black,” says Yevhen. “I always thought that my photos were not bright enough in color,” Yevhen admits. Before the war started, he even enrolled in a color studies course to improve his skills. However, the war changed his plans. “On the second lesson, the war broke out, and I stayed in the same color scheme as before. Fate did not keep me in my palette,” he recalls.
Borysovskyi admits that he sometimes experiences "creative depression." As a press officer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one has to be versatile—writing texts, taking photos, and shooting videos. Serving in artillery, he faces a limited number of subjects to shoot. “We have a couple of types of cannons, and the choice of what to capture isn’t very large,” Yevhen explains.
He compares his work to that of journalist colleagues, who have the opportunity to travel across the entire front line. "I feel professional envy," Borysovskyi admits.
Photographer’s Work in Wartime and Censorship. Borysovskyi’s work as a photographer during the war is closely monitored by censorship. Serving in the airborne assault troops, the photos that appear on the brigade’s official pages undergo strict checks. “The photos you see on the brigade's pages are a compromise: they convey the atmosphere while satisfying the leadership and, most importantly, don’t endanger the guys,” Yevhen explains.
At the same time, Yevhen creates separate shots for his comrades, which are not published officially. This allows him to retain a part of his creative freedom while also meeting military requirements. “If you can’t capture it in one shot, go become a videographer,” he jokes, highlighting his motivation to shoot the best possible photos, even in combat conditions.
Yevhen reflects on his place during the war. "Unfortunately, I underestimate my role in this war because I sometimes feel like a TikTok officer," he says. Borysovskyi emphasizes that, while his profession is important, he feels conflicted: “I’m neither a rear guard nor a front-line fighter—I ride between positions, shoot, and come back. Sometimes I don’t see the point in my work because the guys are making a far more significant contribution to the fight. You take an incredibly cinematic photo that captures the atmosphere, but then you put down the camera and go help the guys.”
Despite this, Yevhen Borysovskyi emphasizes: “These photographs may not change the weather, they may never be published, but they are important for the people in them and for history,” he says.
Despite the seriousness of the war, sometimes it is the simple moments that resonate most with society. One of Borysovskyi's most popular works was a series of photos of a soldier feeding a cat borscht. “This photo, this photoset, despite all my efforts during the war, was the most popular,” Borysovskyi recalls. This emphasizes the importance of even small moments of humanity that help create an emotional connection between the military and the public.
For Borysovskyi, photography has always been a way to discover new worlds and explore different life situations. “Photos allow you to go to places that are not accessible to mere mortals,” he says, emphasizing the unique opportunity to be in a wide variety of locations.
The work Yevhen did before the war naturally flowed into what he is doing now at the front. But the war has added new challenges, including the need to shoot video, which is now important for the military leadership. “And you're trying to sit on two chairs with one bun,” Borysovskyi jokes, describing how difficult it is to choose between photography and video at critical moments.
Borysovskyi emphasizes that while video is a quicker way to grab attention, photography is more important in the long run. “A photo is one thing, you look at it and it can be illustrated in many places,” he says, ”At the same time, video is quickly forgotten. You can put your heart and soul into a video, edit it for a few minutes, and no one watches it to the end, and you don't understand why.”
The job of press officer Yevhen Borysovskyi is to accompany journalists, but it is not always a satisfying one. As he admits: “And you hear the questions they ask. Tactical and technical characteristics of the gun, etc. It's really frustrating sometimes. Why not talk about life, about personal things? About people? About something deeper?”
Yevhen prefers working with Western journalists, who, in his opinion, focus more on human stories. “I like working with Western journalists, they talk about real life. They ask the soldiers the same questions I would answer myself: “How do you react to the fact that your classmates did not go to war? About society, about the future, about experiences, about home,” he says. These dialogues help not only to talk about the war, but also to highlight the personal experiences of the soldiers.
Yevhen describes his internal conflict when he works in dangerous conditions: “To die for 150 likes. Who needs it? But this is part of the job.” His self-irony reflects the difficulties that press officers sometimes face in the course of their duties.
Yevhen Borysovskyi continues to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and work in the field of visual art, despite the challenges of the current situation. War and social change force everyone to rethink their priorities, but Borysovskyi remains true to his calling. “In 2022, I tried to pick up an assault rifle, but fate still pushed me a camera. Can I still resist it? War, no matter how horrible it sounds, is both beautiful and terrible at the same time. It's something that has always aroused a certain creative excitement in me, when you see all these scenery and destruction. You are ready to stay here. You try to convey this terrible war as best you can. Even if I am demobilized, I am sure I would like to return and film the story of our struggle, but more freely, not limited to the area of performance,” he says.
Yevhen also dreams of filming natural disasters, such as tsunamis or tornadoes, noting that he would be interested to see it with his own eyes. “I would like to take such shots while being inside the elements. But with these desires, I should probably turn to certain specialists,” Yevhen jokes.
Yevhen Borysovskyi is currently the head of the communications department of the 148th separate artillery brigade of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On February 26, 2022, he volunteered. In April 2023, he was transferred to the artillery brigade as a press officer. Until 2016, he perceived photography as a hobby and additional income, until Hryhorii Vepryk suggested creating his own photo agency, The Gate Agency, which would specialize in business photography and production filming.
Yevhen Borisovsky's Instagram.
The material was created by:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Site 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.
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