Finalist: Missing Home
A narrative picture story based on coverage of events during the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. The story could focus on news or daily life.
Missing Home
Home, and often childhood with it, are collateral damage in armed conflict. Over the past year, more than 140,000 residential buildings in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed – over 7% of the country’s housing. As Ukraine becomes a land of missing homes, neighbors like Georgia are filled with families fleeing the frontlines of eastern Ukraine. Since February 2022, Georgia has received more than 60,000 Ukrainian refugees. While the Georgian government stopped funding its emergency program housing refugees in hotels on August 1, 2022, many families continue to stay in Tbilisi in privately-funded hotels functioning as shelters or other temporary living spaces, hoping to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. Collectively, they wrestle with memories of what they witnessed and what they left behind. “This feeling of emptiness will be with us for a lifetime,” shared Vitaly Narikov, whose home in Mariupol was leveled. “In our phones, we will always have those photos of our houses, now being destroyed. Photos of our favorite places, moments, and things that don't exist anymore. Before that, our everyday life and struggle, all our earnings, were invested in the place we were living, in our houses. And now we have nothing. Nothing exists anymore, it's just a hole.” The psychological and emotional pain of losing home is particularly acute for children, who are at increased risk of long-term effects of exposure to the trauma of war due to their developmental needs. They grapple with the loss of security and stability, but also innocence. Amidst this grief, children still find and create safe spaces for themselves in their new environments, even as their parents navigate the tension of remaking home in Tbilisi while aching from the absence of homes left behind. This project is part of the photographer’s ongoing personal work as co-founder of the Home Collective, a long-term documentary project chronicling how the human experience with home intersects with geopolitics.
Missing Home
Home, and often childhood with it, are collateral damage in armed conflict. Over the past year, more than 140,000 residential buildings in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed – over 7% of the country’s housing. As Ukraine becomes a land of missing homes, neighbors like Georgia are filled with families fleeing the frontlines of eastern Ukraine. Since February 2022, Georgia has received more than 60,000 Ukrainian refugees. While the Georgian government stopped funding its emergency program housing refugees in hotels on August 1, 2022, many families continue to stay in Tbilisi in privately-funded hotels functioning as shelters or other temporary living spaces, hoping to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. Collectively, they wrestle with memories of what they witnessed and what they left behind. “This feeling of emptiness will be with us for a lifetime,” shared Vitaly Narikov, whose home in Mariupol was leveled. “In our phones, we will always have those photos of our houses, now being destroyed. Photos of our favorite places, moments, and things that don't exist anymore. Before that, our everyday life and struggle, all our earnings, were invested in the place we were living, in our houses. And now we have nothing. Nothing exists anymore, it's just a hole.” The psychological and emotional pain of losing home is particularly acute for children, who are at increased risk of long-term effects of exposure to the trauma of war due to their developmental needs. They grapple with the loss of security and stability, but also innocence. Amidst this grief, children still find and create safe spaces for themselves in their new environments, even as their parents navigate the tension of remaking home in Tbilisi while aching from the absence of homes left behind. This project is part of the photographer’s ongoing personal work as co-founder of the Home Collective, a long-term documentary project chronicling how the human experience with home intersects with geopolitics.
