TOO YOUNG TO FIGHT

My work explores the trauma caused by displacement and dismemberment of family and home. As a child orphaned at birth in Kirov, Russia, I long to tell the stories of youths whose childhoods are divergent or unstable due to geopolitical circumstances outside of their control.

The landscape of the war in Ukraine is changing daily. As of September 2022, over 1000 children have been killed in Ukraine- some have been tortured and their bodies burned. Others have sustained injuries from shelling and are spending birthdays and holidays in hospitals getting fitted for prosthetics. Thousands are accepting a new life of living underground dreaming of a day when they can go back to school– or just to dance class. The rest, those who account for the over five million refugees who were forced to flee since the war started, are doing their best to assimilate in places that may never feel like home. 

As they grow older, some of them will be drafted into the war as young adults. Some will help raise the siblings that their parents died to protect, and some will never return to their childhood homes or cities again. I will continue to photograph their stories– the ones that emulsify the innocence that war destroys. As the world starts to turn away from the reports on the news and the headlines in the paper, this work demonstrates that the shadows of this period in history will follow us, reflected through the eyes and stories of Ukrainian children as they find a more permanent identity. Too Young To Fight was awarded The Yunghi Kim Grant, 2022.