Red Hook Editions has announced the release of Documentation of the War, a new photobook by Kharkiv-based photographer Vladyslav Krasnoshchok. The edition will feature photographs taken between 2022 and 2025 documenting the consequences of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
This was reported by Red Hook Editions.
The book will include images of destroyed Ukrainian cities, soldiers, volunteers, and civilians whom the author has photographed since the beginning of the invasion. In an interview with Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, Krasnoshchok said that at the outset of the full-scale invasion, he documented everything that entered his lens.
“At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, I photographed everything that came into view — destruction in Kharkiv and damaged military equipment. Of course, not everything could be photographed, as accreditation was required. Gradually, I moved from one subject to another: destroyed buildings and people against their backdrop, animals, the work of the military, the dead... War has many faces. I understood that if I could reveal at least 60–70% of these themes and assemble them into a book, it would already be a worthy result,” the photographer said in an interview for UAPP photographers.
According to Krasnoshchok, the photobook will not follow a strict chronological order. Instead, the sequence of images is constructed to gradually immerse the reader in the reality of war.
“I sought to build such a sequence of images in the photobook that even without direct depictions of explosions or weapons, it would be clear: this is a story about war,” Krasnoshchok explained.
In addition to photographs, the edition will include the author’s personal notes in both Ukrainian and English, as well as a reference section outlining key historical events and statistics of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The cover features a field of sunflowers left unharvested — one of the symbols of the war. In the distance, a military vehicle can be seen driving along a road, reflecting the idea of war’s presence in every centimeter of Ukrainian land.
“In addition to my personal reflections, the book contains an informational insert with key facts from our history. It is dry but necessary documentation: from the declaration of independence and the signing of the Budapest Memorandum to the beginning of the annexation of Crimea,” he added.
Krasnoshchok works with an analog camera, develops his photographs himself, and prints them on silver gelatin paper, giving his images distinctive depth and documentary expressiveness.
Documentation of the War will become another important international testimony about the war in Ukraine and an attempt to capture its multifaceted reality through the language of photography.
Photo: ukrainianphotographers.com
Author: Inna Mikhno