PHOTO BOOK "CULTURE OF CONFRONTATION"

The book CULTURE OF CONFRONTATION speaks to the turning point in the history of Ukraine, that touched the whole world, the Ukrainian revolution of 2013-14.

Hardcover with cloth spine

Supplemented with a map and timeline

292 pages, 18×24 cm, text in English

First edition: 500 books printed in total signed and numbered

The book CULTURE OF CONFRONTATION speaks to the turning point in the history of Ukraine, that touched the whole world, the Ukrainian revolution of 2013-14. It started as a completely peaceful demonstration on Kyiv’s Independence Square (in Ukrainian 'Maidan Nezalezhnosti') against the decision of the former President of Ukraine to suspend an integration deal with the European Union. The events that supposed to be over in a day, turned into three months of bloody clashes, tears, Molotov cocktails, burning car tires and deaths.

From the beginning, the revolution felt like a performance, with scenes of carnage interweaving with incredible beauty. The battles on the streets appeared almost unreal, as though occurring in some medieval fable or legend. So visually my photos broke away from the specific context that this was all happening in Ukraine. What I tried to capture was the more abstract, universal conflict that was playing out, between light and shadow, between the thick black smoke and whiteness of the February snow, and in some sense between good and evil.

The book features an extensive archive of photographs shot in the middle of street clashes, artifacts and texts sharing the problematic discussions. An interview and the photographer's diary are divided into 3 phases of events on the Maidan Square. It is also supplemented with a map and an events timeline to which are linked all the toponyms in the book.

In the book I am not going to condemn or assess those terrible events, instead, I show the confrontation between the two forces, two world views, two ways of development, and allow the viewers to find answers themselves.