Ukrainian refugees pose before huge backdrops showing the devastation of their country, photographed before touristic landmarks in Europe, contrasting the war in Ukraine and the peace in Europe. By juxtaposing the architectural buildings, Russian photographer Danila Tkachenko shows the invisible connection between the European spectators and the Ukrainian victims.

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Published in issue #3 2024, Invisible Threads

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Danila Tkachenko is a Russian photographer who lived in Moscow and fled in 2022 after the war broke out and his position became too risky to stay. For every citizen, especially journalists and photographers, it is dangerous for them to express their opinions about political issues. After the war started, he collaborated in a political campaign on the Red Square, where he disrupted a military parade on the 9^th of May 2022, the Russian victory day, using smoke bombs with blue and yellow colours. His comrades ended up in jail, so it became too dangerous for Danila to stay in Russia. He received refugee asylum in Italy and has lived in Milano since then, although he currently resides temporarily in Paris.

While living in Moscow, Tkachenko made a photo series of Gulag, the Arctic area in the north of Russia, known from the book The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. The Gulag refers to the former concentration camps where Russian dissidents were sent as prisoners to face hard labour, violence and often death. He photographed extensively in Siberia, Altai, Ukraine, Central Russia and Ural in Western Russia.  

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I wanted to make a project about Ukrainian refugees because many people fled from Ukraine.

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Inversion

While living in Italy, Danila Tkachenko embarked on his latest project, Inversion, an artistic intervention based on a travelling photo exhibition of photographers documenting the consequences of Russian military aggression in Ukraine. In the photographs, we see Ukrainian refugees posing for a sizeable canvas-printed image of the destruction in Ukraine made by Ukrainian photographers. The poignant detail is that the canvas is placed before a typical tourist landmark in European countries, connecting the devastation of Ukraine with Europe. The first picture of Inversion shows an old lady, Elena, aged 92, who was a teacher in Ukraine. Vulnerably, she sits in a wheelchair covered in black blankets against the cold. The backdrop shows a destroyed residential building in Boroyanka, Kyiv Region; the complete setting is placed before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the symbol of peace and identity of Germany. Tkachenko explains his approach: “I wanted to make a project about Ukrainian refugees because many people fled from Ukraine. I contacted my friend, the Ukrainian war photographer Maxim Donduk, and asked to use his photographs. I believed it would be powerful to position the refugees in front of a well-known European place to establish a connection between the image and the European audience. I put the refugees in front of the big canvas of approximately 3x4 meters. I use the landmarks to confront the audience about the war, showing them that the destruction is not far away and might affect their cities. Most people see the war only on the television news, and now, it has become a more visual reality for them.”

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Most people see the war only on the television news, and now, it has become a more visual reality for them.

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Architectural connection

Danila Tkachenko found Ukrainian refugees with the help of his Ukrainian friends, through Ukrainian communities in Europe, and random meetings with people on the streets. In Paris, in the courtyard of the Louvre, with the crystal pyramid in the background, we see Victoria, a fashion model aged 25. The backdrop also shows a destroyed residential building in Borodyanka. There are strong juxtapositions in the image. The model is well-dressed and fits perfectly into the haute couture world of Paris, yet the destroyed buildings behind her contrast with the peaceful Paris scene. It is as if the building lingers on in the memory of Victoria, disrupting the peace and happiness of the cultural background. Tkachenko: “I did a lot of research on the photo of the war in Ukraine and looked for an architectural connection between the canvas and the location in Europe. For this project, I requested my colleagues in Ukraine to send me special photographs that I could connect to the European buildings.”

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Contrast and similarity

The picture taken on the famous Charles Bridge in Prague shows a mother and her two-year-old baby, Maria; the backdrop photo is the collapsed bridge in Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. The mother turned her back to the camera's lens because she did not want to be recognised. “The mother was a bit afraid, especially because I am Russian and I don’t speak Ukrainian, so she didn’t want her face to show in the photo. So, she asked if she could pose with her baby without being recognisable.”

The photo of Fedor, a Ukrainian lawyer, taken before the Colosseum in Rome, shows a striking congruence with the backdrop of a bombed school in Zhytomyr. The lines of the destroyed school have a mirrored direction of the lines of the dilapidated Colosseum. Tkachenko: “I chose the Ukrainian photo especially to contrast the Colosseum in the background.”

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Düsseldorfer Schule

All photos have been shot with cloudy skies and subdued, even light, to enhance the formal unity in the series and avoid the connotation of a tourist-like picture. “The whole project has been shot consciously, without sunlight. I am influenced by the Bechers and the Düsseldorfer Schule, who strived for formal aesthetics in all their projects.”

It took one year to finish the project. “It took a while for me to find appropriate photos for the backdrops and refugees. I had to travel a lot to all the different places to set up the backdrops. I also had to avoid problems with the local police, as I didn’t ask for permission to set up the backdrops. Often, police asked me what I was doing and why I was taking these pictures. I walked with the metal construction through the cities, which made people wonder what I was doing.”

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The project Inversion was created by artist Danila Tkachenko with the support of the non-profit organisation Gariwo. Twelve photos were selected for this project from nine photojournalists who agreed to participate. The project started with a photo exhibition at the Monte Stella Memorial Garden in Milan, inaugurated on May 6, 2023, with the support of the Gariwo Organisation. After the exhibition, an aluminium frame of 2.80 by 3.76 meters was created, on which 12 photographs were alternately displayed to be shown against the backdrop of landmarks in seven different European cities. The project involved 12 Ukrainian refugees who escaped the war in European cities. All funds raised from the Inversion project will be donated to Ukrainian army units.

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About

Danila Tkachenko is an artist, photographer and activist currently based in Milan, Italy. In 2022, he committed a series of anti-war actions in different regions of Russia, for which the Russian government opened a criminal case against him and put him on the wanted list. He received numerous awards, including the World Press Photo, European Publishers Award, Leica Oskar Barnack, Gabriele Basilico Prize and Foam Talent. He collaborates with media organisations like Spiegel, CNN, Washington Post, Guardian, BBC, The National Geographic and Libération.

In 2014, he graduated with a documentary photography degree from the Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia in Moscow, Russia. His project, Restricted Areas, which showcased abandoned secret military cities in Russia, received the European Publishers Award for Photography in 2015.

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danilatkachenko.com

@d.tkachenko.studio

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^{Gariwo is a non-profit organisation based in Milan that conducts its activities internationally.}