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Paper short abstract

This paper explores the epistemological role of visual material produced by Ukrainian women, viewing them both as witnesses and (counter-)archivers, amidst fatigue with violent war imagery, as they take pictures and videos while travelling back and forth between Belgium and Ukraine during the war.

Paper long abstract

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been described as ‘the most documented war in history’. Artists, film makers and curators have turned to archival and documentary practice, and Ukrainian civilians have become involved in documenting violence and war crimes in what Asia Bazdyrieva and Svitlana Matviyenko have conceptualised as a communal ‘labour of witnessing’, to gather evidence and preserve knowledge as the war continues. For my PhD project, I conduct longitudinal photovoice research with 11 Ukrainian women as they travel back and forth between Belgium and Ukraine during the war. In my paper, I will reflect on the epistemological role of the visual material produced by the women, to record their journeys and everyday life in Ukraine. By taking pictures and videos on their phone during the limited amount of time they spend in Ukraine, the women document how the extreme disruption of the war saturates the mundane and routine practices of everyday life. At the same time, the pictures and videos become testimonies of the way this ‘everydayness’ of war changes over time, revealing a palimpsestic layering of reality. I engage with the concepts of ‘witnessing’ and ‘(counter-)archiving’ to make sense of the particular positionalities of my participants, both as direct witnesses recording their experiences of travelling to Ukraine during the war, and as active documenters (counter-)archiving the ‘everydayness’ of war, amidst a growing fatigue with violent war imagery in an oversaturated visual environment (Filyuk, 2025).

Filyuk, K. (2025). Researching and Curating Photography from Ukraine. University of Salford and 89books.