The War They Live exhibition

The exhibition is сurated by The Kyiv Independent photo editor Irynka Hromotska in collaboration with Ukrainian photographer and creator of the project, Serhii Melnychenko. In early 2025, Melnychenko distributed 25 disposable film cameras to Ukrainian soldiers across the front line, inviting them to document their everyday lives. Each camera was sent back with a handwritten letter and a personal artifact from the war: a piece of shrapnel, a flight jacket patch, a part of a drone, or a MacCoffee pouch. These objects create an emotional, first-person archive of wartime, identity, humor, and hope.

The resulting exhibition offers a rare historical snapshot from within the war, told directly through the eyes of those who fight it through photographs from across the front lines, handwritten letters from soldiers and physical artifacts: uniform patches, handmade tokens. Each part of the exhibition offers a snapshot from within the war, rather than about the war.