The Collection of War Photos
Elena Tita got interested in photography in 2019, leaning more toward portraits, artistic black-and-white photography, and street photography.
Since February 24, 2022, Tita started working in documentary photography, capturing the everyday life of the Ukrainian frontline city of Zaporizhzhia, her hometown. She volunteered at the refugee hub as a social worker and worked as a photographer on many topics: internally displaced persons, humanitarian aid, volunteer movement, training of military and tactical training of civilians, destruction caused by Russian troops, etc.
“Just like in pre-war times, the focus of my attention and camera is still on people: how they react to the war, what they do, how they cope with new living conditions,” Elena Tita shares.
Ukrainian girl holds the Ukrainian flag at the volunteer center in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. June 14, 2022.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia became the closest large city for many people escaping the Russian occupation. People began to unite in volunteer centers to resist and to help cover the needs of the military and internally displaced persons (IDPs). There are ofter children at the volunteer centers, whom parents-volunteers take with them and give simple tasks around the center.
A night missile attack by Russian troops destroyed a residential building in the center of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. 19 people were killed. October 6, 2022.
A boy is posing in front of a heavily damaged residential building: his apartment survived, but it is unhabitable now. Zaporizhzhia, like other frontline cities of Ukraine, has been regularly shelled by Russian troops since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. On October 9, 2022, a missile hit completely destroyed a section of the apartment building, killing 14 people. October 11, 2022.
A group of female volunteers posing in front of camouflage nets in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. November 17, 2022.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia became the closest large city for many people escaping the Russian occupation. People began to unite in volunteer centers to resist and to help cover the needs of the military and internally displaced persons (IDPs). There are at least ten places in the city that produce camouflage nets for the military, where volunteers, both residents of the city and IDPs, work.
On January 14, the Russian missile strike on Dnipro destroyed a section of a nine-story residential building. 46 people were killed and 80 were injured. January 15, 2023.
Children hide at a bomb shelter during an air raid alert in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. A group of internally displaced persons (IDPs), 81 persons, including 21 children, live in a residential building equipped with a bomb shelter where they hide children during the air-raid siren and shelling. January 17, 2023.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia became the closest large city for many people escaping the Russian occupation. One hundred thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) live there.
Two Ukrainian soldiers, Viacheslav Levytskyi and Serhii Potremai, in the rehabilitation hospital. May 23, 2023.
Viacheslav and Serhii met in Russian captivity in March 2023. Viacheslav was barely alive at the time of his capture: he was shot in the legs and abdomen, and, in seven days and nights of moving from trench to trench in the hope of being rescued by his fellow soldiers, he froze his hands off. Viacheslav underwent amputation of all his limbs in Chechen captivity: his arms and legs were already affected by gangrene and could not be saved. It was here that he met Serhii, who became his arms and legs in the hospital and then in Chechen basements, waiting for the exchange.
On June 11, 2023, Vyacheslav and Serhii were among 95 Ukrainian soldiers released from captivity and finally got to a hospital with the necessary conditions for treatment and rehabilitation.
A girl rides a bike past a damaged residential building in Irpin, the Kyiv region. Towns near the Ukrainian capital – Irpin, Borodianka, Hostomel, and Bucha – suffered the greatest destruction of civilian infrastructure at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. August 4, 2022.