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Photography · Conflict · Memory

OKRAYINA

The 7 borders of war

Since 2019 I have travelled across Ukraine to photograph the wounds war leaves behind: seven human borders that appear on no map.

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Reporting published in:
The Telegraph El Confidencial The Guardian CNN Die Zeit The Kyiv Independent
A woman walks past a burnt-out armoured vehicle on a street in Ukraine, in front of a building destroyed by the war.
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The project

Okrayina is a documentary photography and war reporting project that crosses seven human borders: terror, life, pain, faith, exodus, nationhood and childhood.

Together they form an eighth: memory. To preserve it, the initiative combines a touring photographic exhibition with an educational programme of talks that brings the war and its consequences into the classroom, giving young people the tools to make sense of reality and to tell fact from disinformation and propaganda.

Lviv Kyiv Sumy Kharkiv Odesa Mykolaiv Kherson Dnipro Avdiivka Bakhmut Pokrovsk Kramatorsk Sloviansk Lyman Zaporizhzhia Velyka Dymerka Vinnytsia Khmelnytskyi Borodyanka Zhytomyr Chernihiv Popasna Svitlodarsk Mariupol Kostiantynivka Sviatohirsk Kupiansk Kryvyi Rih Uzhhorod Pavlohrad Ternopil Uman Bucha Poltava Pryluky Hlukhiv Kurakhove Mala Tokmachka Orikhiv Niu-York Dobropillia Oleksandrivka Lozova Izium Velyka Oleksandrivka Kropyvnytskyi
Cities and regions photographed between 2019 and 2026

Cities photographed: Lviv, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Lyman, Zaporizhzhia, Velyka Dymerka, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Borodyanka, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Popasna, Svitlodarsk, Mariupol, Kostiantynivka, Sviatohirsk, Kupiansk, Kryvyi Rih, Uzhhorod, Pavlohrad, Ternopil, Uman, Bucha, Poltava, Pryluky, Hlukhiv, Kurakhove, Mala Tokmachka, Orikhiv, Niu-York, Dobropillia, Oleksandrivka, Lozova, Izium, Velyka Oleksandrivka, Kropyvnytskyi.

“What are memories compared to crippled fates and murdered people?” Oleksandr Mykhed, Ukrainian writer · The Language of War (2024)
Portrait of a Ukrainian soldier lit by a red headlamp in the dark.
An ambulance beside a badly wounded man lying on the ground, with another man coming down a fire escape.
A mother and her baby reflected in the window of an evacuation bus.

Okrayina continues beyond these images

Exhibition

A touring show that carries the seven borders into physical space.

Discover → Education

A programme that takes the testimony of war and media literacy into the classroom.

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Make Okrayina possible

We are looking for partners to take the exhibition and its education programme to new audiences.

Host the project Galleries, festivals, cultural centres and universities Sponsor Brands, foundations, media outlets and institutions

Prefer to talk directly? hola@okrayina.com