They say that grief has 5 stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. But no one tells you that they are not set in line like train stops on the way to recovery but rather scattered and encountered as swings of a pendulum, going back and forward as if there’s no escape. This is a sort of grief that me, my family and my community lived through during the last 2 years, grieving the war and its aftermath - lives, livelihoods and dreams that are lost.

As a photographer, capturing this grief, both through people around me and my own body, was my way of putting up with what seemed inconsolable. All the models are members of the Ukrainian diaspora in San Francisco, where I live and work. I used my signature method of location/props as a catalyst to access raw and deep emotions. I also used simple measures like double exposition, long exposition, and pattern augmentation when necessary to add to the surrealism of the photograph.

I normally show my work in 8x10, watercolor paper, white wooden frames, but I can print any size, paper or metal, except augmented prints - they are 8x10.