In 2024, I began my new project, Hell Was Full. My aim is to create a diverse yet coherent portrait series—one that forms a consistent, sincere, and heartfelt collective portrait of the defenders of Ukraine. There is a common tendency to portray soldiers through images of bravado, weaponry, tanks, and drones. While this visual language is understandable, I am interested in a more intimate approach. I have always been drawn to simple portraiture, and I prefer to keep military paraphernalia out of the frame. For me, these very quiet portraits—made in equally quiet places—create space for reflection and deepen the sense of the hell that awaits these soldiers on the frontlines.
Hell Was Full received the ‘Documenting Ukraine’ grant, IWM Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna in 2025.