The Ukrainian Embassy in Romania has opened an exhibition of the Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Max Levin, who died at the hands of the occupiers.
These works were first exhibited in the spring of 2022 in the Verkhovna Rada. Inna Varenytsya, a journalist and former wife of the deceased, told LB.ua about this in a commentary.
"The Russians had just withdrawn from Kyiv, and almost nothing was working in the city. And so, we, the relatives, were approached by representatives of the Verkhovna Rada with a wish to make an exhibition of Max's photos in the parliamentary building. They selected the photos themselves and found an opportunity to print them somewhere in the city. Then, in May 2022, these photos were exhibited in the backstage area, among the windows covered with sandbags. It was probably the first exhibition in the parliamentary building since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Then, as far as I know, this exhibition travelled to the Latvian parliament, and there were requests for exhibitions in Albania, Sweden and other European countries," she said.
The presented photographs are historical moments of the war captured by the documentary filmmaker.
"And it is also a memory of Max himself. This week, on 7 July, is his birthday. He would have turned 43, but now he is forever 40," commented Inna Varenytsya.
It became known about the death of Maksym Levin on 1 April. His body with several bullet wounds from an automatic weapon was found in a forest near the village of Huta Mezhyhirska. Maksym, accompanied by Oleksiy Chernyshov, a soldier and former photographer, went to Huta Mezhyhirska on 13 March to document the consequences of Russian aggression. They left the car and walked towards the village of Moshchun. Since then, contact with both men has been lost. Later, journalists found out that the Russians had actually executed Levin and Chernyshov.
For more than 10 years, Maksym worked in the editorial office of LB.ua, and also collaborated with Reuters, BBC, TRT World, Associated Press, and Hromadske. His photos have been published by the Wall Street Journal, TIME, Breaking news Poland, EU AGENDA, World news, Korespondent.net, ELLE, TV-24, Radio Bulgaria, Ukraine Crisis Media centre, Vatican news, Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL).
Together with his colleague Markiyan Lyseyko, Levin founded the AFTER ILOVAISK project in 2014 to preserve and rethink the significance of the events of August 2014. Maksym was one of those who managed to get out of the Ilovaysk cauldron alive.
Most of his documentary projects are related to the war in Ukraine. "Every Ukrainian photographer dreams of taking a photo that will stop the war," the journalist explained.
During the full-scale war, his photographs were exhibited in the parliaments of Romania and Latvia.