Tetiana Bohuslavska. Series is a part of a long-term photography series “Inner Home / In-between”

In 2025, I had trips to Izium, a frontline city that was under russian occupation in 2022. Observing the city wounded by the war, I constantly thought about the people here, what they had gone through. When I asked the question out loud, I got the answer – you’d better not know, they’ve gone through hell. 

 

 

In Memory Of The Lost Lives

 

 

In a publication on January 20, the Izium City Council reported that the bodies of 22 victims from a mass grave in Izium, Kharkiv Oblast could not be identified to date. “From March to September 10, 2022, our city of Izium was occupied by the russian troops. During this terrible time, armed groups of the russian federation committed terrible crimes: murders, torture, and left mass burials of local residents. One of such places was a forest near the cemetery on Shakespeare Street in the city of Izium. After the city was liberated, a mass grave was discovered at this location. Thanks to the efforts of the State Emergency Service, volunteers, law enforcement officers, and investigators, more than 450 bodies and remains of the deceased were exhumed. They were sent to Kharkiv for forensic medical examinations to identify them and establish the causes of death. Unfortunately, as of today, 22 bodies remain unidentified (..).”

 

 

This series was shot as a diary, a reflection on tragic events, solidarity, through a self-portrait, in which visual identification becomes impossible. Also, the restrictions on taking photos outside the local residence, as well as inside it (for safety reasons), only brought me closer to the practice of photography that is usual to me, as a painting of emotions and thoughts, and therefore their possible transformation. There are things, especially during the war, that appear before the eye or are perceived not only as symbols of home, but as what is called liminal, transitional, where is a sense of limit, in between, symbolically and actually, such as a window or curtain, in which there is a combination of the inner and the outer, and at the same time their demarcation. Then my attention was particularly attracted by the material that covered the windows. It had not only mirror properties, but also let in light from outside, creating the impression of outer space. This corresponds to my feeling and understanding of human life as a separate universe, and of every life killed by russia as a whole world lost. 

 

 

Memory has become part of our responsibility, and memory not only of the victims of the war, but also of the very value of life, since the «value» that the enemy carries is only death and destruction. Thus, the moment of remembrance for me is also the space where it is worth and possible to focus on the values ​​that we continue to carry on.

 

Tetiana Bohuslavska