Lviv-based photographer Marta Syryko has created a series of photographs of Ukrainian veterans who lost their limbs in the war. The author dedicated her project “Sculptural” to art based on ancient Greek statues. Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers is publishing a conversation with the author and her photographs.
— Marta, how do you position yourself? Who are you?
— In fact, I've been doing photography all my life, so I position myself as a photographer. I am also fond of art history, and I teach art history.
— What projects were you working on before the full-scale Russian invasion?
— It so happened that for ten years I photographed all the time in the nude style. I worked with corporeality. But somewhere between 2019 and 2020, I came to a deeper awareness of corporeality and acceptance. People's bodies are very diverse. This buzzword “diversity” came to me, so I started exploring it through photography. I photographed older people naked, including my grandparents. They had no choice and agreed to the shoot, but only because they liked what I was doing. I think I aestheticize any body I touch. Maybe it's the influence of the Renaissance or the Baroque. I try to present any body in a more picturesque and aesthetic way. Even if it's a documentary, I still want to add some artistic touch.
I also filmed various projects with children with Down syndrome. It was also a challenge for me. When I was thinking about motherhood, I had a lot of internal questions, and that's how the project called The Sun Inside was born. Now, by the way, we've reached the point where we can no longer call children with Down syndrome “sunny.” I agree with this. I like what I see in society now in terms of inclusion: we are learning to speak, think, and coexist with each other correctly.
I discovered many things for myself. For example, people could not accept the fact that I photographed a woman who, in their opinion, was overweight. She went in for sports, she liked her body, she lived happily, but her fatness was an eyesore to people. I was curious why people reacted to this in such a way. Then I filmed a woman who had huge scars and stretched skin after giving birth to a child, and, for example, she had a much more positive attitude. I also had a lot of questions about feminism and its development in Ukraine. And then the great war happened.
— Are the people who come to your photo shoots confident or vulnerable? Do your photos help them to look at themselves in a different way? Maybe accept themselves?
— I have always had more empathy for women because it so happens that in our culture there is still a certain attitude towards appearance. People live with complexes. I didn't think that I would be somehow connected to this and work psychologically as well: trying to reveal a person during the shooting and emphasize the beautiful parts of their body that are aesthetically pleasing. I never thought I would have to explain to a woman that she is beautiful and has no problems. I met women who had to be convinced: “You just met the wrong person. She broke your psyche, and there was nothing to break, because you are fine. You're fine! You're too picky!”. During photo shoots, I always try to support my subjects and explain to them that everything is fine. In general, I always want to say that all people are beautiful, so that they can live in peace.
— Perhaps you remember a story of a hero or heroine when a person saw their own photos and changed their attitude towards themselves?
— I remember that I was shooting an older woman and she didn't like the photos, but she didn't like them from a technical point of view. She explained that the girls on Instagram that I photograph don't look like that. It was a turning point for me. I realized that I needed to focus on reality, on what a person is like. A lot has changed since then. For example, I had a situation where a girl with the fourth stage of scoliosis wanted to have a photo shoot before her spinal surgery. She wanted to remember what she looked like. And she liked the photos and published them. Despite the fact that we tend to hide such moments. It seems to me that this is absolutely normal. We are all different.
— How did the idea for the Sculptural project come about?
— In the last months before the Russian invasion, I collaborated with athletes. My works were presented at exhibitions, and people asked: “Is this a real person or a sculpture?”. It stuck in my mind. So I can say that many paths led me to the Sculptural project. That is, it didn't come out of nowhere.
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The Sculptural project involves all people who suffered as a result of the full-scale invasion. They undergo rehabilitation and prosthetics at the Superhumans center. Most of them are veterans, but there is also one civilian woman from Soledar. She is the oldest among my heroes. The project is not yet completed, but I don't focus on that. I'm not looking for heroes myself, personally. But now, for example, we are making a documentary about heroes. And because the project has essentially grown into a new form, we need to work with new stories. More and more people are getting injured, and not everyone manages to adapt. They get a lot of psychological help at the center. This is an incredible job of the doctors who work there. To be honest, I don't want to finish this project just because I'm immersed in each story, and each story is unique, each person tells it differently, perceives the injury differently, and this affects their future life.
— Tell us about your first hero who agreed to be filmed. What were your expectations for this shoot and how did it turn out?
— My first hero is the current “Bachelor” Alexander Budko. His life has taken off and spun well! He is, by the way, one of the few guys who have taken off their clothes completely. Many, for example, don't want to take off their underwear, so we cover it with a cloth. So the idea is to identify with the Greco-Roman sculptures, which for the most part, not all of them, of course, had drapery. And drapery was the main element of any marble or other sculpture.
We filmed Sasha for only 15 minutes because it was during the blackout period. Nevertheless, our short collaboration turned into a long-term friendship and support. I keep in touch with many of my characters to find out how they are doing. Some of them have already had children, some have gotten married, and so on. Some of them did it faster than I did. Sashko is an incredibly talented guy who just tears up everyone around him and is building an incredibly good career for himself. He and we, as a society, need this, because he is the one who tells people: “Hello! Inclusivity! Hello!” By his example, he does more than I did with my niche, which was only in circles that were interested in art. It was still a small part of people.
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— Does the perception of your characters' trauma change after the photo shoot? What do they talk about?
— Zakhar, who lost two arms, an eye and a leg. And it is he who tells me about acceptance and stoicism, positive thinking, and life in general. This is the last character I filmed. Zakhar was treated in Germany. He tells me that it was not comfortable to travel in a wheelchair everywhere. Although there are comfortable cities and places there. And in our country... Yes, I understand that it's all a matter of funding. Accessibility is a very important thing, because an incredible number of people have been injured in two and a half years.
Perhaps I am so sensitive to this because this problem was close to my family. My grandfather, being blind, could not go out. Even though we lived in a home for the blind. Now they say in a home for the visually impaired. And he could not go out without being accompanied by another person. Especially as he got older, he could not go out at all. I remember his state when you feel weak and a burden to someone. Because you can't do it yourself and you have to ask someone to help you all the time. It's a very difficult moment to overcome yourself and ask for help. My grandfather was very nervous about this. Even though we were his family, we loved him, he felt guilty because he had to ask someone for something all the time. So there is still the question of how the family perceives and reacts to everything. It's also hard for family members now, because they really have more responsibilities. This is a huge problem that is not talked about enough. People accuse me of taking nice pictures and leaving. Yes, I did, but at least I reminded people about it with my work.
— Marta, what's next? Can you tell us what you plan to do with this Sculpture project?
— The project is also expanding naturally. I find civilians through rehabilitation specialists whom I photograph. We talk about different types of injuries, traumas, and losses. We are also making a documentary with the director Sashko Brama. We want to tell the stories of the heroes. This movie will be translated into English. I think it is very important for the international audience to see it. And finally, I would like to see a book or an exhibition, but in some acceptable space. In my opinion, the way people look at works printed in the right space has a greater impact on their emotional range and how they will remember these works. This is even very important from a diplomatic point of view.
— What photograph do you still dream of taking? Or perhaps, are there any heroes you would still like to capture?
— My desire is simply to continue making photographs. I often feel disappointed that in today's world of fast-paced content, many people don't appreciate photography as much. My goal is just to keep creating, so that one day I will have an audience who truly stops and takes the time to look at my work and reflect on it. Nowadays, it’s really hard to capture people's attention. The truth is, our information space is so saturated and cluttered that sometimes something very valuable gets lost in this flow. Yes, you get lost, and you have to play by the same rules, because there's no other way. You also have to make videos, plan content, just to somehow reach an audience with works that require a bit more time.
Marta Syrko is a 29-year-old photographer from Lviv with a background in art history. She works in conceptual photography, exploring themes of the body in her projects.
Marta's Instagram.
The material was worked on:
Topic researcher, text author: Vira Labych
Photo editor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futei
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
The material was created with the support of The Fritt Ord Foundation.
Lviv-based photographer Marta Syryko has created a series of photographs of Ukrainian veterans who lost their limbs in the war. The author dedicated her project “Sculptural” to art based on ancient Greek statues. Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers is publishing a conversation with the author and her photographs.
— Marta, how do you position yourself? Who are you?
— In fact, I've been doing photography all my life, so I position myself as a photographer. I am also fond of art history, and I teach art history.
— What projects were you working on before the full-scale Russian invasion?
— It so happened that for ten years I photographed all the time in the nude style. I worked with corporeality. But somewhere between 2019 and 2020, I came to a deeper awareness of corporeality and acceptance. People's bodies are very diverse. This buzzword “diversity” came to me, so I started exploring it through photography. I photographed older people naked, including my grandparents. They had no choice and agreed to the shoot, but only because they liked what I was doing. I think I aestheticize any body I touch. Maybe it's the influence of the Renaissance or the Baroque. I try to present any body in a more picturesque and aesthetic way. Even if it's a documentary, I still want to add some artistic touch.
I also filmed various projects with children with Down syndrome. It was also a challenge for me. When I was thinking about motherhood, I had a lot of internal questions, and that's how the project called The Sun Inside was born. Now, by the way, we've reached the point where we can no longer call children with Down syndrome “sunny.” I agree with this. I like what I see in society now in terms of inclusion: we are learning to speak, think, and coexist with each other correctly.
I discovered many things for myself. For example, people could not accept the fact that I photographed a woman who, in their opinion, was overweight. She went in for sports, she liked her body, she lived happily, but her fatness was an eyesore to people. I was curious why people reacted to this in such a way. Then I filmed a woman who had huge scars and stretched skin after giving birth to a child, and, for example, she had a much more positive attitude. I also had a lot of questions about feminism and its development in Ukraine. And then the great war happened.
— Are the people who come to your photo shoots confident or vulnerable? Do your photos help them to look at themselves in a different way? Maybe accept themselves?
— I have always had more empathy for women because it so happens that in our culture there is still a certain attitude towards appearance. People live with complexes. I didn't think that I would be somehow connected to this and work psychologically as well: trying to reveal a person during the shooting and emphasize the beautiful parts of their body that are aesthetically pleasing. I never thought I would have to explain to a woman that she is beautiful and has no problems. I met women who had to be convinced: “You just met the wrong person. She broke your psyche, and there was nothing to break, because you are fine. You're fine! You're too picky!”. During photo shoots, I always try to support my subjects and explain to them that everything is fine. In general, I always want to say that all people are beautiful, so that they can live in peace.
— Perhaps you remember a story of a hero or heroine when a person saw their own photos and changed their attitude towards themselves?
— I remember that I was shooting an older woman and she didn't like the photos, but she didn't like them from a technical point of view. She explained that the girls on Instagram that I photograph don't look like that. It was a turning point for me. I realized that I needed to focus on reality, on what a person is like. A lot has changed since then. For example, I had a situation where a girl with the fourth stage of scoliosis wanted to have a photo shoot before her spinal surgery. She wanted to remember what she looked like. And she liked the photos and published them. Despite the fact that we tend to hide such moments. It seems to me that this is absolutely normal. We are all different.
— How did the idea for the Sculptural project come about?
— In the last months before the Russian invasion, I collaborated with athletes. My works were presented at exhibitions, and people asked: “Is this a real person or a sculpture?”. It stuck in my mind. So I can say that many paths led me to the Sculptural project. That is, it didn't come out of nowhere.
The Sculptural project involves all people who suffered as a result of the full-scale invasion. They undergo rehabilitation and prosthetics at the Superhumans center. Most of them are veterans, but there is also one civilian woman from Soledar. She is the oldest among my heroes. The project is not yet completed, but I don't focus on that. I'm not looking for heroes myself, personally. But now, for example, we are making a documentary about heroes. And because the project has essentially grown into a new form, we need to work with new stories. More and more people are getting injured, and not everyone manages to adapt. They get a lot of psychological help at the center. This is an incredible job of the doctors who work there. To be honest, I don't want to finish this project just because I'm immersed in each story, and each story is unique, each person tells it differently, perceives the injury differently, and this affects their future life.
— Tell us about your first hero who agreed to be filmed. What were your expectations for this shoot and how did it turn out?
— My first hero is the current “Bachelor” Alexander Budko. His life has taken off and spun well! He is, by the way, one of the few guys who have taken off their clothes completely. Many, for example, don't want to take off their underwear, so we cover it with a cloth. So the idea is to identify with the Greco-Roman sculptures, which for the most part, not all of them, of course, had drapery. And drapery was the main element of any marble or other sculpture.
We filmed Sasha for only 15 minutes because it was during the blackout period. Nevertheless, our short collaboration turned into a long-term friendship and support. I keep in touch with many of my characters to find out how they are doing. Some of them have already had children, some have gotten married, and so on. Some of them did it faster than I did. Sashko is an incredibly talented guy who just tears up everyone around him and is building an incredibly good career for himself. He and we, as a society, need this, because he is the one who tells people: “Hello! Inclusivity! Hello!” By his example, he does more than I did with my niche, which was only in circles that were interested in art. It was still a small part of people.
— Does the perception of your characters' trauma change after the photo shoot? What do they talk about?
— Zakhar, who lost two arms, an eye and a leg. And it is he who tells me about acceptance and stoicism, positive thinking, and life in general. This is the last character I filmed. Zakhar was treated in Germany. He tells me that it was not comfortable to travel in a wheelchair everywhere. Although there are comfortable cities and places there. And in our country... Yes, I understand that it's all a matter of funding. Accessibility is a very important thing, because an incredible number of people have been injured in two and a half years.
Perhaps I am so sensitive to this because this problem was close to my family. My grandfather, being blind, could not go out. Even though we lived in a home for the blind. Now they say in a home for the visually impaired. And he could not go out without being accompanied by another person. Especially as he got older, he could not go out at all. I remember his state when you feel weak and a burden to someone. Because you can't do it yourself and you have to ask someone to help you all the time. It's a very difficult moment to overcome yourself and ask for help. My grandfather was very nervous about this. Even though we were his family, we loved him, he felt guilty because he had to ask someone for something all the time. So there is still the question of how the family perceives and reacts to everything. It's also hard for family members now, because they really have more responsibilities. This is a huge problem that is not talked about enough. People accuse me of taking nice pictures and leaving. Yes, I did, but at least I reminded people about it with my work.
— Marta, what's next? Can you tell us what you plan to do with this Sculpture project?
— The project is also expanding naturally. I find civilians through rehabilitation specialists whom I photograph. We talk about different types of injuries, traumas, and losses. We are also making a documentary with the director Sashko Brama. We want to tell the stories of the heroes. This movie will be translated into English. I think it is very important for the international audience to see it. And finally, I would like to see a book or an exhibition, but in some acceptable space. In my opinion, the way people look at works printed in the right space has a greater impact on their emotional range and how they will remember these works. This is even very important from a diplomatic point of view.
— What photograph do you still dream of taking? Or perhaps, are there any heroes you would still like to capture?
— My desire is simply to continue making photographs. I often feel disappointed that in today's world of fast-paced content, many people don't appreciate photography as much. My goal is just to keep creating, so that one day I will have an audience who truly stops and takes the time to look at my work and reflect on it. Nowadays, it’s really hard to capture people's attention. The truth is, our information space is so saturated and cluttered that sometimes something very valuable gets lost in this flow. Yes, you get lost, and you have to play by the same rules, because there's no other way. You also have to make videos, plan content, just to somehow reach an audience with works that require a bit more time.
Marta Syrko is a 29-year-old photographer from Lviv with a background in art history. She works in conceptual photography, exploring themes of the body in her projects.
Marta's Instagram.
The material was worked on:
Topic researcher, text author: Vira Labych
Photo editor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futei
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
The material was created with the support of The Fritt Ord Foundation.
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.
