The photo exhibition They Fight For Us Too, featuring works by 16 Ukrainian photographers documenting Russia’s war against Ukraine, is running until the end of August at the Centro Cultural e de Congressos in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. The Observador reported this.
They Fight For Us Too was created as part of the F/262 International Photography Festival. In Portugal, the exhibition was organised in cooperation between the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP) and the Portuguese association Fotografia, Solidariedade e Obras Sociais (F/SOS), under the patronage of TEKEVER, an IT, aerospace technology, defence and security company.
“Presenting the exhibition in Portugal means bringing these stories to a new audience and making sure they are not forgotten,” the UAPP said.
According to the organisers, They Fight For Us Too aims to preserve the memory of the war through the eyes of those who document it every day. The photographs show the destruction and violence caused by the war, as well as the resilience of the Ukrainian people following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“These photographs are much more than war documents; they are testimonies of lives interrupted, resistance and hope,” said João Carlos, the exhibition’s curator and president of F/SOS.
The exhibition also features previously unpublished texts by five Portuguese writers — Ana Bárbara Pedrosa, Ana Margarida de Carvalho, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Julieta Monginho and Rui Couceiro — inspired by the photographs. The texts aim to create a dialogue between two forms of art about memory, war and human existence.
“Technology allows us to better understand what surrounds us, but it is people and their stories that give it meaning,” said TEKEVER CEO Ricardo Mendes.
The photographers whose works are featured are Pavlo Dorohoy, Andrii Dubchak, Yurii Dachyshyn, Oleksii Furman, Olena Hrom, Mstyslav Chernov, Serhii Korovainyi, Olha Kovalova, Vlada and Kostiantyn Liberov, Yevhenii Maloletka, Serhii Mykhalchuk, Mykhailo Palinchak, Danylo Pavlov, Viacheslav Ratynskyi and Alina Smutko.
They Fight For Us Too was previously exhibited in Belgium and the Czech Republic.