Our Fertile Soil

Our Fertile Soil

Luxury cars and expensive imported furniture fill Ukraine’s large cities, televisions across the country glow with westerns styled reality shows and anything can be found for the right price. But Ukraine is far from being as developed as these western accessories would make it seem.

Ukraine’s struggles span centuries but currently include a governing system riddled with corruption, a market economy just beginning to recover from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and a widely impoverished population especially in rural areas.

This photographic essay, done 2011 -2013, describes the daily life of Ukrainians in rural farm based communities. This essay doesn’t follow a distinctive storyline but instead moves from one part of the community to the next through the connections that bind them. It portrays aspects of the communities’ livelihood, youth, culture, times of tragedy, economy and the passing of the seasons. The photographs are moments of daily life in a close knit community of a people who share a common struggle.

Ukraine has since entered a period of very tragic war that follows a long lasting historical trend. The Ukrainian people are a loving, caring, and very hard working culture that deserves independence and the freedoms found in the western world.