In 2014, during Euromaidan or “Revolution of Dignity” as it is called in Ukraine, 105 protesters were killed in clashes with riot police in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine. 20 February was the bloodiest day of the clashes when at least 47 protesters were killed.
5 years later Mykhaylo Palinchak walked the street where most of the protesters were killed that day and noticed photos of those people ganging on the trees left there by relatives and friends. Over time, the photos began to fade, the colors swam, some of them crept in with the mold, while others almost completely erased almost the same way like time fading our memory of those events.
Looking at those photos that should remind us about people who sacrifice that most valuable they have – their lives, I remembered the Susan Sontag's quote:
“Today everything exists to end in a photograph.”
But what will remain if even the photos will disappear?
Photo project Maidan Faces was self-published as limited edition art-book in September 2020 in Ukraine. Please visit Maidan Faces art-book page for more details about it.
Maidan Faces photo series became finalist of Bird in Flight Prize '19 and winner of special nomination Panasonic Readers' Choice Award of Bird In Flight Prize '19. Exhibition in Set art-space (Kyiv, Ukraine). Finalist of the Portraits Hellerau Photography award and was exhibited during finalists group exhibition in Museum of Science and Technology (Dresden, Germany). Silver medal in Portrait section (series) of the international photo contest LifePressPhoto (Ukraine); Series is stored in private collections and in permanent collection of Museum of Kharkiv School of Photography and National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum.
Mykhaylo Palinchak's photo typology Maidan Faces about killed protesters during Euromaidan was published in De Standaard (Belgium) magazine on February 20, 2019. Publications in Zaborona (Ukraine), Bird In Flight (Ukraine), Untitled (Ukraine), Pismo (Poland) and SZ Magazine (Germany).
