Vladislav Krasnoshchok: “I noticed a tattoo on his body—the face of Christ. It turns out that Jesus is dead.”

Photographer and artist Vladislav Krasnoshchuk, representative of the new wave of the Kharkiv School of Photography, continues to document the Russian-Ukrainian war. At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, he filmed the situation in his native Kharkiv and traveled with volunteers to the front line. He works on author's projects, the themes of which are combined into a great chronicle of the war. Vlad talked about the peculiarities of filming the war on film, about documenting the work of the army aviation brigade and forensic experts, as well as why it is important to continue working on topics that can not immediately be published in the media.

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When did you start documenting a full-scale war? What frame did it all start with?

Documenting the war was my seemingly unattainable dream. However, I did not think that there would ever be a war in Ukraine, that it would be possible to get rid of it. But the wargirl came to our house and I began to photograph her.

I needed to get accreditation to photograph the war. At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the person filming on a camera or mobile phone was simply wanted to kill. Everyone thought that if you filmed the location — everything, something would fly there immediately... I started by filming anti-tank hedgehogs, destruction in my hometown, Russian equipment burning here in Kharkiv. I took pictures of everything that I could even try to shoot at the time.

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I did not think about the benefits of these shootings. For me it was important in the sense of documenting history, creating an archive. I divided this war into separate aspects for myself: I shoot one topic, then move on to the next and store the pictures in my archive. I can go back to topics that have already been filmed for me to get better shots. When I work on a book, I just choose pictures that are visually stronger for each of the topics. Sometimes I just try to compete with myself to get the best shots.

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- In addition to photos that document a full-scale invasion, you write texts that are the diary of a military photographer. In one of these materials you mention a trip to Severodonetsk. Tell me, please, what footage did you bring from there?

— At first, I always went to the shooting with volunteers or friends who had at least some access to places where you could shoot at least something. Volunteers brought the local or military things they needed, and I drove with them and at the same time tried to take pictures. At the beginning of a full-scale war in this way I managed to get to the city of Lysychansk, and then to Severodonetsk. Local fighting had already begun there and I was surprised that volunteers went there at all. When it was very dangerous there, these people took cat food to Severodonetsk. There was such a situation that it seemed impossible to shoot at all. It all went very quickly. The trip was more to remember my feelings and everything that happened there.

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Of course, a few shots were made. However, I had only one thought — how to get out of there quickly, while there are whole bridges. By the way, the bridges collapsed on the same day, but we managed to get out before that. Otherwise, we would have to swim with the camera along the river Siversky Donets, and then go somewhere on foot for a long time.

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How important is it and is it possible not to repeat yourself?

I think that every photographer has repetitions. If we talk about shooting the war, then everyone is already repeating and it is very difficult to shoot something that you yourself or someone else has not shot yet. Now, it seems to me, everyone is stuck. Everyone already had all possible topics, and photographers, to a certain extent, shoot with “stamps”. For example, if there are dead after arriving in the city, then in the frame there will be: some kind of blanket, hand, leg, manicure, and in the background parts of destroyed cars, someone lies and smoke around... All photographers shoot it. I am not saying that it does not need to be done, on the contrary, it is important to document. However, it is much more difficult to shoot something new, surreal, not like any frame that you or someone else has already done.

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I do not often shoot arrivals in Kharkov. I don't always have the opportunity to go when busy with other things or work. In addition, I do not need to make news or shoot reports that need to be quickly handed over to an agency or editorial office. When I have an inner feeling that I need to film the consequences of a missile strike, then I go and work at the landing site.

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— What aspects of a full-scale war would you be interested in filming?

— As for me, valuable footage can be shot wherever you are. The only thing is difficult to get permission to shoot in certain places. There is a desire to photograph many different topics, but not always there is access to them. Of course, there are journalists and photographers who have no problem with that. However, most Ukrainian documentary filmmakers have difficulties.

Had the opportunity to get forensic experts at work. But this is such a closed topic: I do not publish anything from the footage yet and, perhaps, will not publish at all. This is rather shooting “at the table”. Probably, in a few years it will be possible to show it somewhere, and some of the shots from this work will be included in my future photo book or become a separate photo book. Sometimes it happens that when you dig and research a topic for a long time, work on it can turn into a book.

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— You are currently shooting an army aviation brigade. Tell me, please, when we started working on this topic?

— I have been shooting army aviation for a year now and I see that so much material has accumulated that there will also be a separate book. When I have time, I write requests and wonder if I can come to them.

I met the crew through the pilot and captain Dmitry. I signed up to his Instagram page and asked if it was possible to pick up guys someday. Dmitry found out from his commanders how best to do this and what request to write. I came to the pilots, met, filmed, made friends with them and started collecting material a little bit. Then it was thought to make a separate story about army aviation.

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At first, the guys took me with caution. Then, when they saw the photos I had printed for them, they began to trust. It is much easier to photograph when you are immersed in a certain environment, when you are not perceived as a stranger. Then you shoot as if from the inside of the system, you are not ashamed, they do their thing, and you do your job - you take pictures. People stop noticing you, and this relaxed atmosphere can then be seen in the pictures.

I photograph the preparations of the sides, the loading of the rockets, how the pilots go on assignment and return. Sometimes I'm interested in capturing their lives. Several times he had the opportunity to fly with the guys when he received permission to do so. It is also interesting to go with the pilots to the scene of the shot and find out how everything happens, to work through this separate topic.

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— How often do you print photos for pilots?

— When I have the opportunity, I always try to drop photos to the guys. It is also important to me that they pass these photos to the commanders and say which pictures can be published and which ones will still lie on the table for now.

Recently, I made a set of postcards precisely from the filming of army aviation. I printed them in Kharkov, my friend made the design. I selected forty photos and wrote the story that is on each postcard. Took the pilots kits so that they had this memory. On the postcards, he made a QR code, with which people could donate funds for the brigade. It is important that for the guys there is benefit from my photos.

Postcards can be purchased or immediately transfer money from the QR code for pilots. He posted information about this on social networks. I am sure that 90% of the postcards will be purchased by people who work with the theme of full-scale war and are interested in photography in general.

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In conversation, you often mention photobooks. Why is this medium important to you?

“A book is what will remain after the war and after we are gone. This is a way to preserve memory. Now these neighbors are hounding Cabamas, missiles, and the book is an opportunity to save the footage. If you fly into a building where there are photos and negatives, the archive may collapse, disappear. However, if there is a book, then there will be memory. This is such an element of storing stories about what was. When a person buys a book and, if the photos are imaginative, interesting, then they give an idea of what was happening at a certain time. Of course, it is impossible to photograph and fit all the themes of full-scale war into one book, no matter how hard you try.

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I recently thought that not all filmed aspects of the war could make it into a book at all. Individual shots can visually stand out from the overall picture. You can photograph something during the war, but in the picture you do not see this connection with the war. That is, this frame could be made both before a full-scale war, and after — there is no visual marker on it. For example, when you shoot prisoners of war, it can be like shooting people in prison serving sentences. This topic is difficult to portray in such a way that it is understandable from just the photo itself. I would like the photos that will be included in my future book to have this relationship with the Russian-Ukrainian war.

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Also, to save my archive, I transfer photos to the Museum of the Kharkiv School of Photography (MOKSOP). My old friend Sergey Lebedinsky took more than two tons of negatives, photos abroad. It is also one of the aspects of keeping this history of the war. When I transfer the photos to Sergei, they end up in Europe, where it is still safe. The Museum constantly hosts various events, exhibitions, and this is also one of the ways to remind that the war is going on in Ukraine.

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— Is it possible to maintain interest in events in Ukraine with the help of photographs?

This is one of the support lines that works. It is necessary for people to see photographs taken during a full-scale war. I will not say that this is the main component of information about the war, but, in spite of everything, it is one of the. Recently, at the arrival site in Kharkiv, someone from the military or police tried to drive away the press. One of the photographers said he would not go because it needed to be documented and shown to the world so that we would continue to provide weapons and provide effective air defense. Of course, I understand that there are closed locations for shooting, but in this case the photographer was right.

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— How aesthetic can war be in the frame? For you, is war documenting events or still an art?

I look at the film from an artistic point of view. News photographers need to show events as hard as possible so that it has an impact on people, to help us financially and with weapons. Instead, it is important to me that these frames are valuable from an artistic point of view and remain in history. Sometimes I can be told that, they say, Krasnoshok aesthetizes war. I am very calm about it. I don't think at all whether I'm romanticizing the war or not. For me, the main task is to make a visually working picture that would affect the viewer. It is important that the photographer has a visual language, a recognizable style. If you look at photographs of the war now, 90% of the frames are very similar to each other, they have similar language. Sometimes it is very difficult to identify the photographer who took it from the picture.

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The visual component is very important to me. I try to make such a picture in which everything would come together and turn into such a figurative thing. When I come from the shooting, my first feeling is that I took a picture again. I show films, scan quickly and I don't like anything right away. This happens because there is no time interval from the shooting to the moment the photos are printed. The eye has narrowed and everything looks bad to me, does not match my feelings of those events, because I saw it yesterday. It takes time to pass and for me to realize that I was photographing.

Sometimes I show the footage to friends to hear their feedback on the pictures. They have a fresh eye, they weren't where I was shooting and they can see something new. First of all, I care about their feedback during the first days since I printed everything. After a month or half a year, I can evaluate my pictures myself. I took a break from the situation and I can see exactly which shots should be chosen. Even if I choose only two frames from the whole shoot — this is already a plus.

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It happens that I have several shoots in a row and I do not have time to print the first films. When a window appears in the shooting, I can calmly browse my archive. I take A4 paper, mark on it the folder number, the number of frames that I would like to print. If you used to use so-called contact prints, now I just look at film scans and select frames. Then I choose a day to work in a dark room and work on the pictures.

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— What is the peculiarity of shooting war on film? Does this form of documentation help to avoid photographic “stamps”?

— The peculiarity of shooting on film is that I completely control the whole process — from presentation to printing. I like it. Another plus is that the film is a physical thing. If there are large-scale blackouts, then at least I will have negatives and photos left. Also, photographs taken from film and negatives can be documents to prove war crimes. No one will say it's fake. Shooting on film is something I'm used to and what I'm interested in working with.

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On the shoot, I take so many films that I have enough so that I do not think about it at all. If the day is busy, a lot of things happen, then I am guaranteed to use ten films. When it is conditionally calm around, I do not rush, I think about the frame longer, and there are fewer films.

Sometimes my photos are compared to those of the Second World War or the First World War. These were wars filmed on black and white film, and such a comparison can probably not be avoided. Instead, when photographing on color film, associations arise with our time and here it is possible to experiment. I'm constantly adding and changing something in my shots on film. First I took pictures in normal format, then switched to panoramic format, and later - to medium format. I try to juggle film formats, color, try different ways of printing, and I'm always curious about what I'm doing. I always have the option to change the shape of working with film and photo printing.

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The way of documenting does not avoid repetitions or “stamps”. You can shoot equally well on the figure and on the film. The main thing is what you pay attention to when photographing. It's important for me to make some good shots that I could add to my archive and then to the book. I try to have as few repetitions as possible. For me, shooting the war is such a marathon that needs to be run and make high-quality pictures. Sometimes it seems that you are stuck on a plateau, you are moving on the same plane and you are no longer able to do anything new. Then an interesting topic appears, and with it the feeling that you are going further, you continue to climb up.

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— You have published the book “Bolnicka” — a surreal story about the work of doctors, full of tough medical humor. Now you are shooting a series of photos about the work of forensic experts. Tell me, please, to what extent this shooting is a continuation of “Bolnicka”?

— The new series of photos is something like “Bolnicka aftepati”. As if the continuation of this theme, but the picture is completely different. Filming forensic experts also breaks down into smaller topics. Even the work of a forensic scientist is very diverse. When I filmed the exhumation in Izyum, it was already the work of forensic experts. First — in the cemetery, and then — in the section hall. Specialists prepare bodies for delivery to relatives and relatives, leave for arrivals, murders, suicides. If you dig deep into this topic, there will be large volumes for filming and a historically significant project can be born. Of course, the topic is very closed, but it is important to remove it for the history, for the archive.

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I worked as a maxillofacial surgeon, and it helps when filming forensics. I understand what is happening at one time or another. It is easier for me to perceive what I see, to abstract from the smell, I have no internal shock and I am calm about the work of doctors. When you shoot a lot on such a topic, it also becomes something everyday. I try to find beauty in this whole process, in the work of these people. Doctors ask what I want to remove here, and they are surprised that their work also has its own aesthetics. Posthumbed a month, a second, printed photos, made an album and gave it to forensic experts. They looked and were delighted, they saw that it was really beautiful. At first some doctors didn't want me to take them off and then asked why they weren't in the photos.

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On the set of forensic experts, I saw a lot of different things. Often these are the bodies of soldiers who worked yesterday, and today are already on the tables. I catch myself thinking about how healthy these guys are. Instead, they are no longer at all healthy, they simply do not exist. I noticed a tattoo on his body — the face of Christ. It turns out that Jesus is dead. On the tables are people with different causes of death: someone hanged, someone was killed by electricity, and next to it was a burned tanker. Of course, it is impossible not to think about it later.

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Please tell me about the book you are currently working on.

The book will be called “Documentation of the War”. Now I select the photos that I will send to the designer of my publishing house shortly. I want to choose at least 100-150 photos that should definitely be in the book. I plan to include my texts in the publication, but I do not yet know whether they will be only in English, or in English and Ukrainian. It is important to me that the content and artistic style of writing are preserved. Thanks to the support of UCF, he bought materials for filming and had the opportunity to photograph various aspects of the Russian-Ukrainian war. I work here on my land, and I would really like our victory.

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Material created with support The Free Word Foundation.

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The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Foutei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar