Occupied / Unoccupied

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project © Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project © Ira Sozanska - Drawing water in silenceSerhii, collecting water from a well during the occupation. No supply, no noise, just necessity. View all images ↓
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  • Dates
    2022 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Documentary, Photobooks, War & Conflicts
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A personal photo story of life under Russian occupation in Ukraine and rebuilding in the UK, contrasting fear and resilience, silence and joy, through the eyes of a mother, refugee, and documentary photographer.

Occupied / Unoccupied is a documentary photography project that traces a deeply personal journey through war and refuge. It reflects the everyday reality of life under Russian occupation in Ukraine and the quiet reconstruction of life in the UK, where I now live with my family as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

The project is divided into two narrative threads. In the Occupied section, I document the first weeks of full-scale invasion as experienced from our home in Hostomel, near Kyiv. These images were taken in conditions of fear, scarcity, and uncertainty. They show children playing behind a mattress shielding a glass window, bread made from the last handful of flour, our neighbour’s garden occupied by a Russian tank, and the black smoke rising over burning houses. They are not photographs of the front line, but of family life breaking down and holding together inside the walls of an ordinary home.

The Unoccupied images were taken after we were evacuated to the UK. They show my children playing in Dorset, walking with our British hosts to a country fair, and learning to knit at the kitchen table. These are peaceful moments, yet they are deeply informed by what came before. Every ordinary scene now holds contrast - safety layered over memory.

This work is my testimony, a form of emotional archive, and a message of gratitude to those who opened their doors to us. It is also a reminder of what so many Ukrainians continue to live through. Occupied / Unoccupied asks what it means to lose and slowly rebuild the feeling of home.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Symbols of safetyMaksym at a family BBQ in the UK, holding two bells in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, a quiet echo of everything we left behind.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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New friends, new hillsUkrainian children walk at Badbury Rings with their new English friends, joy unfolding in a place where nothing is under threat.

© Ira Sozanska - Drawing water in silenceSerhii, collecting water from a well during the occupation. No supply, no noise, just necessity.
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Drawing water in silenceSerhii, collecting water from a well during the occupation. No supply, no noise, just necessity.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Smoke over homeThe view from our window on the second day of the full-scale invasion, a house in flames, smoke rising into a changed world.

© Ira Sozanska - Reminder in redA shot-up car on the road in Bucha. We passed this road during evacuation. We survived. Not everyone did.
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Reminder in redA shot-up car on the road in Bucha. We passed this road during evacuation. We survived. Not everyone did.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Shielded by tapeMy children behind a taped glass door, a desperate shield to protect from shattered glass in case of explosion.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Tank and kindergartenThe occupant’s tank parked next to a new kindergarten in Hostomel, a brutal contradiction in one frame.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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A smile on the hillsMaksym rides his balance bike at Badbury Rings in Dorset, UK, the smile on his face wide as the safe landscape behind him.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Walking togetherChildren walk with their hosts, Tony and Jenny, to the New Forest Show. A quiet moment of connection between two families brought together by war.

© Ira Sozanska - Wonder and normalcyThe children watch the New Forest Show in peace. No air raid sirens, just applause.
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Wonder and normalcyThe children watch the New Forest Show in peace. No air raid sirens, just applause.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Letter V is not a VictoryTank marked with the letter V stood in someone’s garden in Hostomel. It wasn’t a battlefield, it was home.

© Ira Sozanska - The mattress wallChildren sit indoors with a mattress pressed against the window, our homemade shield from broken glass.
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The mattress wallChildren sit indoors with a mattress pressed against the window, our homemade shield from broken glass.

© Ira Sozanska - Tablets in the dark In the bathroom with no light or power, children sit with their tablets, hiding from another attack.
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Tablets in the dark In the bathroom with no light or power, children sit with their tablets, hiding from another attack.

© Ira Sozanska - Three years without fearA girl, three years in the UK. For now, she doesn’t have to be afraid.
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Three years without fearA girl, three years in the UK. For now, she doesn’t have to be afraid.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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White flagsA line of cars heading to evacuation through the occupied Kyiv region in March 2022, white cloths tied on mirrors.

© Ira Sozanska - Learning to knit in peaceNadia sits beside her host Jenny in the UK, learning how to knit. Her first moment of stillness.
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Learning to knit in peaceNadia sits beside her host Jenny in the UK, learning how to knit. Her first moment of stillness.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Welcomed like familyHappy children at a family barbecue with the relatives of the UK hosts, who took us in not only to their home, but into their lives.

© Ira Sozanska - Image from the Occupied / Unoccupied photography project
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Bread from the last flourGrandmother’s hands hold bread made by herself on a pan over a barbecue fire, using our last flour.