We come from fields, not from trees (work in progress)
This is a project about disconnection from land. The title comes from the absence of a complete family tree: I know my family history only through fragments I had to uncover myself.
My family were forced to leave their home in Ukraine after the Second World War and deported to a working camp in Siberia, 10,000 km away. My research began after I found a photo archive of their life there, carefully signed and preserved by my grandfather.
I returned several times to the place where my relatives were meant to remain, but never could: a small town in north-west Ukraine. I photographed its landscapes and interiors, developing the work through physical printing processes and searching for the most appropriate material form for each image. I continue this research through places in Ukraine where my family, including myself, once lived.
I explore photography as a prosthetic form of memory: a way to hold what is missing, create an illusion of continuity, and finally accept the absence of connection.
