2024 Winner
Ukraine: Love+War
95 Photographers
Book Award Years
Photo: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times The 2024 FotoEvidence Book Award is dedicated to the consequences of the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine (2014-2024) with a focus on the impact on children and families. During the application process, from September 2023 to January 2024 FotoEvidence received around 7000 images from more than two hundred photojournalists from 32 countries. Following FotoEvidence's publication Ukraine: A War Crime, the photojournalism community unites for second time to document this tragic period in Ukrainian history for future generations.
Photo: Carol Guzy for NPR Orlando, Florida 15.4.2023
Sgt. Misha Varvarych and his fiancé Ira Botvynska traveled to Florida to receive prosthetics from the nonprofit Revived Soldiers Ukraine. They had made a mutual decision to spend their lives together rather than a proposal. ‘It’s a good thing,’ jokes Misha. ‘I can’t get down on one knee.’ But he did just that, albeit a prosthetic one. Ira said yes. ‘God has plans for me’, states Misha confidently. ‘I need bionic legs to be able to lift my child off the ground in the future.’
“Amidst this dark hour, many Ukrainians have remarkable stories of love and resilience in the face of so much terror. Young couples fall in love, older couples stick together, parents raise their children, partners of the missing hold on to hope, and soldiers fallin love.”- From Natalie Keyssar, Ukrainian Love Letters
The book Ukraine: Love+War (2014-2024) is a product of the 2024 FotoEvidence Book Award and it is dedicated to the impact of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on children and familes. It is a collection of photographs and witness accounts by 95 Ukrainian and International photojournalists from 23 countries.
With texts and images from more than 90 Ukrainian and international photojournalists, FotoEvidence will publish Ukraine: Love+War, documenting the profound impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine during the last decade. The book focuses on daily life and the disruption, displacement, destruction, and death visited on innocent Ukrainian civilians.
Edited by Sarah Leen with the help of Irynka Hromotska and designed by Fernanda Fajardo the bi-lingual book will be released in July 2024 in Ukrainian and English.
An exhibit associated with the book will be presented in several galleries and festivals in Europe and the USA.
Parrticipating photographers in the book Ukraine: Love+War
Alena Grom, Alex Chan Tsz Yuk, Alex Kent, Ana Palacios, Anastasiia Petukhova, André Luís Alves, Andriy Lomakin, Antoni Lallican, Antonio Romano/Gaze Collective, Anya Tsaruk, Brendan Hoffman, Carol Guzy, Celestino Arce, Chris McGrath, Christian Verdet, Christopher Nunn, Christopher Occhicone, Claire Harbage, Daniel Carde, Daria Chuprun, David Guttenfelder, David Tesinsky, Denislav Stoychev, Diego Ibarra Sanchez, Dima Kornilov, Ed Ram, Elena Tita, Emanuele Satolli, Emine Ziyatdinova, Eric Bouvet, Evgenyi Maloletka, Fabio Bucciarelli, Fermín Torrano, Finbarr O'Reilly, Federico Quintana, Gaelle Girbes, Igor Efimov, Hailey Sadler, Hanna Hrabarska, Ingmar Bjorn Nolting, Irina Unruh , Israel Fuguemann, J.B Russell, Jelle Krings, Johanna Maria Fritz, Karina Piliugina, Katerina Kouzmitcheva, Katya Moskalyuk, Laetitia Vançon, Laura Boushnak, Lynsey Addario, Luca De Cet, Mads Nissen, Marcin Kruk, Marek M. Berezowski, Maryna Syrovatka, Małgorzata Smieszek, Massimo Berruti, Máté Ladjánszki, Mateusz Sarello, Mauricio Lima, Maxim Dondyuk, Michael Logsdon, Michael Robinson Chavez, Mykhaylo Palinchak, Natalie Keyssar, Nicole Tung, Oksana Kami, Oksana Parafeniuk, Oleksandr Rupeta, Paula Bronstein, Pavlo Palamarchuk, Philip Cheung, Pierpaolo Mittica, Pete Kiehart, Roman Pilipey, Ron Haviv, Sasha Maslov, Sergey Melnitchenko, Sergii Polezhaka, Simona Supino, Sitara Thalia Ambrosio, Stephen Dupont, Svet Jacqueline, Timothy Fadek, Vasil Dinev, Vince Bevan, Virginie Nguyen Hoang, Yevhenii Zavhorodnii, Volodymyr Petrov, Yurii Stefaniak, Yurko Dyachyshyn, Vyacheslav Ratynskyi, Wojciech Grzedzinski, Wolfgang Schwan.
The production of the book is supported by Open Society Foundations and Grodzins Fund.
Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Kyiv 12.2.2024
Natalia Sheleshei, 39, with her children Yehor, 12, and Anastasia, 5, wait for the return of Serhii at their apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine on February 12, 2024. Serhii Sheleshei, 49, a Ukrainian serviceman went missing with three of his comrades during fighting at the frontline near Zaitseve, Donetsk region, on October 12, 2022. "For a year and five months, I've lived with the uncertainty of whether my husband is alive or not," Natalia, who juggles two jobs, says. "He adored the children. Whenever he could, he would call, saying 'I love you' and 'I worry about you'," Natalia recounts about the time when Serhii was at the frontline.