On 10 July, the Les Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles, France, will host the presentation of books by two Ukrainian photographers.
Serhii Korovayny will present Love Letters to Donbas, which combines photographs taken between 2010 and 2014 with images of the war-ravaged cities of Mariupol, Bakhmut, Pokrovsk, and others.
"I cannot stop the advance of the Russian army. What I can do is take photographs," Serhiy says of his work. "This is my way of preserving memory. Let this book be a naïve attempt to resist destruction and oblivion, my love letter to the region where I was born, which Russia is stealing from me."
Yelyzaveta Bukreyeva will present Here They Build Houses from Ashes, an intimate yet sweeping portrait of everyday life among civilians in Ukraine's liberated frontline communities. The book explores daily routines that often seem to defy logic, yet preserve human dignity.
Both books are part of FotoEvidence Ukraine, an initiative developed in partnership with the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. The project supports Ukrainian photographers while preserving the visual history of Russia's invasion of Ukraine since 2014. By donating these photobooks to libraries around the world, the initiative aims to ensure that these stories become part of the historical record for future generations.