West Of The Birch Trees

© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project © Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project © Anastasia Miseyko - Alisa rests in a temporary bed in Spain. View all images ↓
View all images ↓
  • Dates
    2024 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Archive, Contemporary Issues, Documentary, Social Issues, War & Conflicts
  • Locations Ukraine, Spain
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West Of The Birch Trees explores the construction of identity within contexts of migration and displacement.

West Of The Birch Trees explores the construction of identity within contexts of migration and displacement through a photographic and textual practice. The project interrogates the notion of “home” when it is no longer a stable place but a fragile, ongoing negotiation shaped by geopolitical conflict, housing insecurity, and the lack of intergenerational rootedness.

Structured around several return journeys to Spain and Ukraine, the act of returning operates both as method and metaphor for examining diasporic experience. Within this cyclical movement, identity is approached as something continuously transformed through encounters with places marked by political instability and personal memory.

The project focuses on rural and semi-rural environments in western and central Ukraine, where relationships to place persist despite displacement and the fragmentation of family structures. Through extended time on site, photography becomes a relational practice that allows connections between people, landscape, and memory to emerge gradually.

West Of The Birch Trees incorporates selected archival material that expands the work beyond individual biography toward broader histories of displacement in post-Soviet contexts. Through the interaction of image, text, and archive, West of the Birch Trees considers how identity and photographic meaning remain subject to continuous transformation across time and context.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project
© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project
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Taken from Puig Campana, the second tallest mountain in Alicante Province (1,406 m), this view overlooks my childhood home.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Alisa rests in a temporary bed in Spain.
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Alisa rests in a temporary bed in Spain.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project
© Anastasia Miseyko - The scene happens in the Jmelnitsky area: a rural site heavily bombarded due to its proximity to an airbase.
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The scene happens in the Jmelnitsky area: a rural site heavily bombarded due to its proximity to an airbase.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project
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A cat sits atop an ironing board, meeting our gaze through the mirror. Recurring motifs of cats, framed portraits, and patterned textiles anchor the continuity of the project.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Wee meet the driver’s gaze through the rearview mirror.
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Wee meet the driver’s gaze through the rearview mirror.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Taken the night before Alisa's birthday, in Gorizia, were they first sought refuge following the outbreak of the war.
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Taken the night before Alisa's birthday, in Gorizia, were they first sought refuge following the outbreak of the war.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Television broadcasting news: influence of war and propaganda in everyday domesticity.
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Television broadcasting news: influence of war and propaganda in everyday domesticity.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Taken along the beach strand of Benidorm, Spain.
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Taken along the beach strand of Benidorm, Spain.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Shot of Tatiana Miseyko, comforting her dog during an airstrike.
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Shot of Tatiana Miseyko, comforting her dog during an airstrike.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Religious icons, a wall clock, and framed animal images.
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Religious icons, a wall clock, and framed animal images.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Alisa and Natalia in a banya in Khmelnytskyi.
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Alisa and Natalia in a banya in Khmelnytskyi.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Lucky seeks comfort and attention during shellfire.
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Lucky seeks comfort and attention during shellfire.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Archival photographs from my family collection, taken across the former Soviet Union.
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Archival photographs from my family collection, taken across the former Soviet Union.

© Anastasia Miseyko - A small bathroom interior, carefully decorated with artificial plants and floral motifs.
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A small bathroom interior, carefully decorated with artificial plants and floral motifs.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Back shot of Tatiana Miseyko in Kropivnitski, broken camera.
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Back shot of Tatiana Miseyko in Kropivnitski, broken camera.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Two dogs confront each other on a residential street, characterised by elements typical of post-Soviet domestic peripheries.
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Two dogs confront each other on a residential street, characterised by elements typical of post-Soviet domestic peripheries.

© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project
© Anastasia Miseyko - Image from the West Of The Birch Trees photography project
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Vova and Sasha sit close together in a narrow domestic space in Ukraine on the evening of Wednesday 19 March, when Russian troops launched a massive attack on Kropyvnytskyi.

West Of The Birch Trees by Anastasia Miseyko

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