‘Devastated by war': Ukraine's battle scars
Vic Bákin, a self-taught photographer based in Kyiv, has made images of Ukrainian youth for years, focusing on queer communities and subcultures. When war came to Ukraine the tone of the project changed. Some of these subjects would now be enlisted to fight. 'The process of making the palm-sized prints became, for me, a contemplative search for meaning in a wartime reality,' he says. A new book combines photographs from Bákin's archive with recent images made in war-torn areas, all printed in a makeshift darkroom in his apartment. Epitome by Vic Bákin is available from VOID
Vic Bákin: 'In the first weeks after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv region, the first place I visited was Horenka, a village to the north-west of Kyiv that was severely damaged by the invasion. Here, as well as in Irpin, Bucha and Moschun, the bloody battle of Kyiv took place. The first person I encountered was a man whose entire house was destroyed by Russian bombs. He lived in a shed with his dog and was raking up the rubble that's left of his house. He showed me his Kiev 60 camera'
'This photograph was shot in Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv region, in June after the withdrawal of Russian troops. It shows one of the thousands of Ukrainian houses destroyed by Russian bombs and one of the only few I used in the Epitome book. Despite shooting rolls and rolls of film of houses devastated by war, my personal goal was to convey the feeling of devastation and loss through other imagery'
'Deteriorated log wall used as a bullet stopper. It is severely damaged at the height of where the heart and the head would be. I made this photograph at an open-air shooting gallery in the middle of Trukhaniv woods. This young man with a trident tattoo appears a few times in the book'
'I brought these flowers back to my home studio from one of my trips to photograph. Being one of the biggest exporters of sunflower oil worldwide, the sunflower is one of the national symbols of Ukraine. The idea of sunflower seeds sprouting out from the pockets of dead enemy bodies became popular after a viral video about a brave civilian woman'
'For some reason, storks are the symbol of family well-being in Ukraine. This felt, for me, like a life-affirming moment; me being stared at by the storks and them being stared back at by me. This image was shot near Bohdanivka in the early summer, after the defeat and withdrawal of Russian troops from the region. At this time people began to return to their homes, some of which were destroyed'
'Pasha and Ruslan, a couple I photographed in 2023 in their temporary home in Kyiv. In 2022 they both fled the war, one from Donetsk region, the other from the city of Kharkiv. I handprinted this piece. After a few days of staying on my table, it took on this cold greyish tone. In the Epitome book this picture was placed alongside images of imploding flames and fires and exploding landscapes'
'Road and a pond as seen from the Kyiv-Lviv train window when I was travelling home. I made this photograph when Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas. When the Russian invasion started, all the photo shops closed, so I used the same photo fixer mixture until it was exhausted. Printed in 2022, this was accidentally bruised with the brown spots – and one of the first pictures that visually shaped the project. This landscape was seen by thousands if not millions, as it was one of the busiest routes for people escaping the war'
'Sasha was born and raised in Mariupol, Donetsk region, Ukraine. His mother survived the occupation in Irpin. His father was listed dead for some time due to a mistake, but did survive the horrors of Mariupol. I made this photograph way before, in the summer of 2020. I first printed it in 2023 after I found it in my archive. Since then it has become one of the most recognisable pictures of the project. The unusual crop is informed by my interest in his stare, not his identity. Later, his skull features became the cover for the book'
'I was photographing nature in the Chernihiv region near Desna River in the winter of 2021, before the invasion. Later in 2022, when checking the virtual occupation map, I realised that the birch wood I photographed was roughly on the same territory where Russians were stopped by AFU before being forced to withdraw'
'While strolling through Kyiv and its outskirts, I encountered a big, rotten pile of chairs that stood there like a sculpture. I immediately found an emotional connection to this object: the way this structure combined both chaos and fragile beauty. As soon as I took the first picture it started raining. I made a few quick frames and left the scene'
'Valera is now serving in an undisclosed brigade of the AFU. Recently, in the autumn of 2024, after Epitome was published, I met him in Kyiv, for the first time in five years, to show him his portrait. I never had an ambition of being a photojournalist. I react to the world around me on my own terms.' The film Safe Light: a Portrait of Vic Bákin by Greg Bushell will be screened alongside a print sale in aid of Hospitallers at MKII, London on 22 February 2025
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