“I dream of taking a photo of the last arrival in Kharkiv and knowing that it is over, and then peace.” - Ivan Samoilov

Ivan Samoilov is a Kharkiv-based documentary photographer and a new member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. Ivan is now 23, and he started documenting the consequences of the shelling three years ago, at the age of 20. In a conversation with us, Ivan talks about his path in photography, the moral boundaries of work during “arrivals,” and the projects he is working on now and dreams of realizing in the future.

‍

Introduction to photography: without romance, but with passion

Ivan Samoilov's love for photography does not have a classic “story of passion from the first camera”. Everything happened quite routinely - but it was in this case that a real passion was born.

“I was about seventeen,” Ivan recalls, ”and my stepfather got a DSLR camera, and he was also a photography enthusiast. I thought, 'Oh, cool, I can take pictures.

‍

‍

Back then, Ivan spent a lot of time in communities where people discussed street photography and shared pictures. He was hooked on this visual world. He began to walk the streets of Kharkiv more and more with a camera in hand, trying to catch something in the frame-although he says that the photos he took back then were “very bad.” He was inspired by the works of Oleksandr Chekmenov and gradually tried his hand at different genres - from street photography to filming rallies and actions and documenting the life of the city. However, Ivan says that real realization and systematic work began only in 2022: “It seems to me that only then did I start shooting something really meaningful, closer to a professional level.”

Although Ivan Samoilov has been actively working as a photojournalist for the past year and a half, he does not call himself one yet.

“I don't want to assign this title to myself,” Ivan explains, ”I'm interested in photography - not just journalistic or documentary. I want to move in a different, more conceptual direction. So far, these are just the first steps, but maybe there will be something more in the future.”

‍

‍

Currently, Ivan works as a stringer for AFP and also collaborates with Getty Images. In addition, he shoots videos as a member of the team of the local Kharkiv media outlet Luke, and also works for charitable organizations.

Today, Ivan Samoilov is still studying - he is in his fourth year at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, where he is mastering his camera skills. But he admits that combining his studies with photojournalism in a frontline city is a difficult task.

“To be honest, there have been no classes for a long time. Everything is online. But how can you learn camerawork online? You have to shoot in the field, in the studio, on the set,” he says.

‍

‍

It is no less difficult to withstand the pressure of reality - shelling, lack of sleep, constant anxiety.

“In the fall, I was a little bit cuckoo,” Ivan frankly admits. At the time, he was working for Gvara Media, a local publication that focuses on documenting every “arrival” in the city. Even if it is “just” broken windows. And such a total recording of every traumatic event gradually exhausted him.

“The last three months have been relatively quiet in Kharkiv, I even had a little rest. But in the last few days, it seems to be picking up again... So I don't know what will happen next,” he adds.

‍

‍

The path to meaningful photography: the transitional year of 2022

Ivan Samoilov began his journey in documentary photography in 2022, not as a professional, but as a freshman with no accreditation or experience.

“I stayed in Kharkiv until the end of March,” he recalls. ”Back then, I had nothing: no accreditation, no proper equipment. I had only a cell phone. I tried to film something, but the results were poor.”

Then came the evacuation and difficult family circumstances. It was only in the summer of 2022 that he returned to the city - for the first time he went to Northern Saltivka with a classmate who had a film accreditation. What he saw there came as a real shock to Ivan.

‍

‍

“I had never been to Northern Saltovka before. It was a different world. And now I come there - I see this neighborhood for the first time, and immediately in such a state... It was very impressive.”

It was then that the first meaningful pictures began to appear - the streets of Kharkiv, his native neighborhood, the destruction, the everyday life after the shelling. These images became the basis of a documentary mini-project that Ivan submitted to the Odesa Photo Days program for young photographers. It all started from there.

‍

‍

“Now that project seems simple to me. But at the time, it was a real breakthrough. It was very cool that Odesa Photo Days promoted it, and the works were even exhibited. It gave me a normal portfolio, a resume, a kind of first support,” he says.

Despite this, the photos remained “in the desk” for a long time. Ivan continued to go to the places of “arrivals” on his own, to record the consequences, but did not publish them. It was only in 2023 that he started working for Gvara Media, and this became a new starting point in his professional development.

“I worked there for almost two years. And it was there that I would say I really got the hang of it,” the photographer adds.

‍

‍

Silent tragedies: reports that stay in your head

Among the many photo reports he has made in recent years, Ivan singles out one that was particularly difficult, both emotionally and morally.

“In 2023, Kharkiv was relatively calm for a long time. It seemed that everything seemed to have stabilized, even in Kyiv it was sometimes louder. Many people had the feeling that the war seemed to have 'stopped,'” he recalls. ”But in the fall, everything changed. And then there was an attack on the village of Hroza, at the funeral of a soldier. It was one of my most sensitive shootings.”

‍

‍

Ivan came to the village to attend the burial of the victims of the tragedy. He photographed relatives in tears, open graves, and silent faces. The photographer says that it was a difficult shoot, one of those that you don't just take pictures and then live with for a long time while processing them.

“Perhaps, thank God that I was not there on the first day,” Ivan admits. ”My colleagues worked there on the first day and told me that there were pieces of bodies lying all over the village. It would have been very hard to bear.”

‍

‍

Ivan says that in 2024, he has already “got the hang of it” on the technical side. He has pictures he is not ashamed of, and he is confident to continue working with them. But the price of this confidence is the deep experience of documenting human pain.

Sometimes the most powerful reports grow out of silence - from unobvious stories that unfold not at the front, but right under our feet, in the heart of the city.

‍

‍

“In the fall, I photographed a family living in a basement in the very center of Kharkiv. These heroes and this photo report are also etched in my memory,” Ivan Samoilov recalls.

The family lives in a dilapidated house. Their apartment was damaged during the shelling, so now they live in the basement, which they have equipped themselves. The man who keeps everything on his shoulders is about 70 years old. His wife and daughter, who have mental disorders, live with him.

“He is the only one who is more or less holding on. He is very calm and collected. He has completely organized their life in the basement,” says Ivan.

The photo report from this place resonated - it was published by The Guardian and other major media outlets.

“I visited them twice. And each time I felt that this is a story that needs to be shown,” adds the photographer.

‍

Documenting the Kharkiv region

Although Ivan did not travel deep into Donbas, he had enough work to do in Kharkiv region. Kupiansk, Vovchansk, Zolochiv, Tsyrkuny - he visited many hotspots in the region.

One of the most dangerous experiences was a report from Kupyansk. Ivan and his colleague arrived at the local market, where a few minutes before the start of the shooting they started talking to a woman who later came under fire.

‍

‍

“We stood there, talking to her, and I tried to take pictures, although the atmosphere was tense. People were hostile to cameras, and it's understandable why. We had just finished talking, and we were moving away literally a hundred meters when the plane arrived. A one-and-a-half-tonne CAB. Right into the market,” Ivan says.

After the explosion, they went to the volunteers - there was a threat of another attack. And after a while they returned. The woman they were talking to survived and was taken to the hospital.

“It was the case when a moment later and we would have been gone,” the photographer admits.

Another story that is deeply etched in his memory happened in September 2023. Ivan was filming a routine social report - international philanthropists helped the family restore their apartment in Kharkiv, renovated it, and bought furniture. Ivan shot the footage, and everything looked calm and positive.

A week later, he received the news of the shelling. The address was familiar.

‍

‍

“I open the message and realize it's the same house. The same entrance. The new apartment was completely destroyed for the second time,” he says. People were saved only because they went down to the shelter.

“No apartment, no belongings. Everything is in the hole. Again,” Ivan adds.

‍

On the scene: how a photographer's intuition works under fire

When asked about his emotional exhaustion, Ivan answers with pauses. He says that this is a complicated question, and the answer to it is not easy either.

“I don't know if you can call it flashbacks,” he says, ”but yes, it happens when you come home after a shoot, in the evening or at night, and just take your head. You sit there and think: “God...”. And then in the morning you get up as if you've had a good night's sleep and go on working. It has become a routine. Unfortunately.”

He speaks cautiously about distancing himself. He admits that it is not always possible to distinguish between work and compassion. But humanity always remains a priority for him.

‍

‍

“If suddenly there is no one around to help the wounded, of course you have to put the camera away. It's not even up for discussion. But I've been lucky so far - there's always been someone nearby: medics, military, volunteers,” says Ivan.

He adds that if you allow yourself to be too empathetic, you can easily go crazy. And we have to keep working.

“The beginning of 2024 was just a daily cycle: shooting - processing - anxiety - shooting again. The last few months have become a little calmer, and I felt it almost like a vacation. But we all realize that it's not for long.”

‍

About shooting “arrivals”

The work of a photojournalist during shelling is always a combination of instant decisions, intuition and knowledge of the local context. Ivan Samoilov says: it all starts with monitoring - telegram channels, local chats, messages from friends. It is especially important to be attentive to details.

“If they write that it hit the ground and no one was hurt, I'll go if they give me the address. If they don't, then it's not worth it,” he explains. ”But there was a case when we were sitting with friends, drinking coffee... or maybe not really coffee. And then we hear a “shahed” somewhere nearby. We open the window and see a flash, a second, a third! I was like: “That's it, we have to go”.

‍

‍

Nighttime shooting is a different story, Ivan says: it's harder to find, you have to rely on smoke, chat messages, and sometimes just intuition. “Sometimes you go to one street and there is no more smoke. You go to another one, and it's nowhere to be found again. And sometimes you are just five minutes from home, and everyone is already writing: “Everything was shaking here. Go to 23 August, it's definitely there.”

On arrival, the success of a photographer's work depends heavily on the speed of his work.

“If you arrive in the first 5-10 minutes, you can still have time to shoot something. But if you're late, the tapes, the police, won't let you in. I used to hesitate, but then I realized that I just had to go confidently, show my accreditation and work. No one will do it for you,” he says.

What exactly to shoot is a separate issue, and this is where the photographer's personal boundaries and moral responsibility begin.

“We all have our 'in-the-table' shots. We've all seen it in three years. I don't think we should show fragments of bodies. If it was a combat hit, and it is clear that soldiers were killed, I don't shoot. Or I do, but I don't publish it. This is a matter of internal censorship. No one has canceled humanity,” Ivan says.

‍

The first conceptual project

One of the projects Ivan is working on now was born out of silence, not shelling.

“I was just walking around the city, I wanted to get on the roof of a destroyed building to look at the view, maybe take some pictures. And when I was going down, I accidentally entered the apartment. Or rather, what was left of it. I saw something colored on the floor... I came closer and it was a photo album.”

‍

‍

It was a family story captured in dozens of children's photographs. The entire archive is dedicated to one girl.

“When I opened it, I was deeply moved. It gave me goosebumps. She seems to be my age now. And I decided that I definitely had to keep it. Maybe someday I'll make a project where I'll combine her photos with my own childhood photos. But it's not ready yet,” Ivan says.

‍

‍

Ivan has published only one post on Instagram, but the real work is still ahead. The archives are at home, spread out across the room. Ivan looks at them and thinks about how to organize it all. How to preserve the memory. For now, he works only with this material. And he is in no hurry to launch new projects, even though he has a large archive of shelling.

“Maybe someday, when everything is over, there will be a pause. Not a full stop, but a comma. To take a breather. And then, perhaps, another project will appear. But for now, I'm here. And I'm working with what makes sense right now.”

‍

“For me, Ukrainian documentary photography is primarily about Chekmenev and Glyadyelov”

Ivan Samoilov is 23. He is still studying, still looking for himself in formats, still forming his own visual language. But he already has a lot of experience in photography and continues to take pictures.

When asked about his inspirational colleagues, Ivan is honest:

“I have to pay tribute to George Ivanchenko - George. I am not quite capable of what he is capable of. To spend two months in Bakhmut is probably not my way, but he is really cool. I respect him a lot. I like the style of the Kyiv photographer Nazar Furyk, he has such a unique look. And, of course, Roman Pylypay. I've listened to his artist talk - he's very inspiring. And in general, there are many strong photographers in Ukraine. But for me, Ukrainian documentary photography is primarily Chekmenev and Glyadyelov. This is my marker.”

Ivan also mentions Liza Voitenko, whose early work was important to him. And all those older artists whose works he discovered at the beginning of his career: Yefrem Lukatskyi, many Ukrainian photojournalists of the “old school”.

‍

A dream photo

Ivan answers the final question about what photo he would like to take:

“Perhaps I would like to take a photo of my last arrival in Kharkiv. To know: that's it. That there will be no more. That the city and the region will finally be left in peace and quiet. And I won't have to shoot it anymore.”

‍

‍

He agrees with Roman Pylypiy, who recently said that no photo has stopped the war. But somewhere deep inside Ivan still has this hope.

His visual style is also gradually changing. Now there is less soft light, more cinematic. There are changes in processing and composition.

“When I look at my photos from a year ago, I see that the compositions are banal. I wouldn't shoot like that now. And it's good. It means I'm growing. Photographers always “push” themselves, but the main thing is to shoot more, to look more. And to develop,” Ivan summarizes.

‍

‍

‍

Ivan Samoilov is a documentary photographer from Kharkiv, documenting the consequences of the full-scale invasion in his hometown in the region. He works with foreign photo agencies: AFP and Getty Images. Photographer's Instagram.

‍

We worked on the material:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Editor-in-chief: Olga Kovaleva
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar