The coverage from Ukraine has been so intense and widespread over the last 16 months that the war may seem saturated. However, there are major gaps in the wealth of films and photographs that have come out of the war, most notably the lack of combat photography.
It’s not because of effort, it’s because front lines are difficult to access. Photographers are often confined to the press tour and placed well off the zero line, known as the front line. As a result, some of the most memorable photographs to come out of war are those that depict the civilian side, the destruction of cities, and the human toll.
New photo exhibition by Israeli freelance photographer Edward Kaprof It has taken significant steps to remedy this problem and stands out with its timeless imagery of war on the front lines.
Kaprof, 48, uses wet-plate collodion photography, one of the earliest photographic techniques invented in 1851, to photograph mostly soldiers, medics, mortuary workers, and a few civilians. I make portraits, which my colleagues describe as a photograph. The most powerful collection of images about the Ukrainian War to date.
He argues that wet plate photography, which produces unique images on A4 size glass plates, is a tremendously complicated and cumbersome process in the digital age and war zones, but for all kinds of personal and historical connections. He happily points out that this is the method he accepts. .
One of the earliest wars documented by photography is the Crimean War in the mid-19th century.British photographer Roger Fenton The same wet plate technique was used to record war scenes, including participants and famous images. “Valley of the Shadow of Death”. “I wanted to close some logical circles,” Kaprof said in an interview this week.
He added that the first surviving photographs of the sacred sites are also from the same technique.
Born and raised in the Soviet Union, Kaprov moved to Israel 30 years ago, where he began his career as a photographer. Much of his work focuses on themes of his homeland, the Soviet Union, and his homeland, Israel, both of which he describes as shattered utopias.
He has used wet plate technology for a seven-year project documenting life along the Israeli border and felt it was the natural choice to create something distinctive in Ukraine.
“This technology does something else,” he said. “It allows us to go deeper.”
He assembled a Ford Transit van, converted it into a mobile laboratory, loaded it with 300 kilograms of chemicals, water and more than 100 glass panes and drove it to Ukraine shortly after the full-scale Russian invasion last year.
He uses a box camera, which he laughingly likens to an accordion that “has everything”. The subject has to stand or sit still to create a clear image, and the photographer takes 10-15 minutes to develop the picture while the emulsion on the glass plate dries.
Most of his subjects belong to soldiers or units attached to the military. They are not in combat, but in tanks and armored vehicles, in trenches and under trees, in their positions, as most modern war photography focuses on.
The necessary stillness is maintained in the process to ensure sharp images with long exposures. The viewer is drawn into the stark clarity of the subjects’ faces, the whites of their cigarettes, the glint of their eyes, while their surroundings and even their companions are blurred in a timeless, otherworldly landscape. There are also unforgettable photos of morgue doctors bending over corpses and staring at the camera, soldiers smoking in trenches, and old couples embracing in ruins.
“When you look at them, you get the first impression that this was 100 years ago,” Kaprof said. A closer look reveals that the soldiers have the latest weapons and equipment. “I want to confuse the audience,” he continued. “Nothing really has changed, so I want you to compare it to past wars. Weapons and mobile phones may have changed, but the essence of war has not changed.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Kaprov had no problem coming to Ukraine to cover the war, even if he wasn’t on a mission. He has worked alone, as he described himself, “obsessively”, without editor’s feedback or financial backing.
“It was like war came to my house. It was my people,” he said. “As a matter of fact, both sides are my people.”
His family history is very personal. His grandparents are from Zhytomyr, Ukraine, and he was born and raised in Chelyabinsk, Russia. When he was born in one country, the Soviet Union, now the current leaders of his homeland Russia are attacking his grandparents’ land.
“Ukrainians are suffering the most and what Russia is doing is not right,” he said. “But they are my family and friends, and some politicians want to steal my homeland and take my last fortune.”
Ukraine: individual war
Until July 23rd, WARM Festival, Sarajevo Academy of Fine Arts, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will be held from October 9th to November 12th at the Baron Gérard Museum of Art and History. 12, as part of Bayeux Calvados Normandie Prize Festival for War Correspondents Located in Bayeux, France.
