CULTURE of the CONFRONTATION #euromaidan

Winter 2013 changed Ukraine. 3 months of bloody clashes, tears, fear, Molotov cocktails, burning car tires and deaths. It already wasn’t just a protest in the support of EU. Ukrainian revolution brought new spirit, changed people and their minds, they became one organism that fight with a great passion and intensity for happy future. From the very beginning Euromaidan turned into a real performance, where started the battle of opposites. Good and evil, light and shadow, thick black smoke and whiteness of the February snow, orange helmets against black. On the revolutionary canvas creepy bloody scenes interwove with incredibly beautiful, from visually side, views. Euromaidan became one of the most beautiful revolutions, like scenes from Hollywood film. In my photos I tried to show the scale of all that happened in the centre of the country. Very often I lost the line between reality and fiction. I forgot the place, time and the cause of what was happening. In one moment the battle scenes reminded terrible days of the previous wars. In another - frosty, fiery battle turned Maidan Nezalezhnosty into a phantasmagoric place. Carefree, obstreperous Kyiv completely lost its familiar features.

Maxim Dondyuk (Ukraine, 1983) is a Ukrainian documentary photographer. Since 2010 he, being a freelancer, works on creating and promoting his own documentary projects. His photographic way starts in 2007, when he worked as a photojournalist in Ukrainian media. In 2011 Maxim received Noor-Nikon Masterclass in Documentary Photography in Bucharest. The list of his grants and awards is long but among them are: Winner of the Ville de Perpignan Remi Ochlik Award, Magnum Photos competition ‘30 under 30’ for emerging documentary photographers, Finalist of the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, Finalist for the FotoEvidence Book Award, Grand Prix ‘Best Global Health Story’ of the BD’s Hope for a Healthy World Photo Competition, Grand Prix of the ‘Best Photo of the Year’ at the contest ‘Photographer of the Year’, shortlist in the portraiture category of Sony World Photography Awards etc. Maxim has such projects: ‘Uman, Rosh Hashana’, 2008-2012, celebration of the Jewish New Year in one of the biggest centers of Jewish pilgrimage outside Israel, in Uman (Ukraine); ‘The Crimea Sich’, 2010-2013, about military patriotic camp for children and future Cossacks; ‘TB epidemic in Ukraine’, 2010-2012, Maxim opened hushed tuberculoses problem in Ukraine, which managed to reach the national status. Since winter 2014 Maxim documents historical events that happen in his country, Euromaidan in Kyiv, annexation of the Crimea by Russia, cruel war in the East of Ukraine. Maxim collaborates with many international editions and online media. His photos were published in TIME, Der Spiegel, STERN, Paris Match, Rolling Stone, PDN, Bloomberg Businessweek, Russian Reporter, Libération, Polka, 6Mois, Esquire etc. Also he works in cooperation with international organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Maxim’s works are in private and museum collections.