I am a photo-based artist based in Buffalo, N.Y.
My personal work focuses on my Ukrainian cultural heritage by examining
language, traditions, current events and customs in my family,
the diaspora and the homeland. As a mother and community builder, I am also
interested in the power of group learning and shared experiences.
A long term project called Sokil, about a Ukrainian Summer Camp outside of Buffalo, NY, examines how the diaspora preserves Ukrainian culture through scouting, rituals and language.
In Alone With Animals I explore Ukraine from a multi-layered perspective: as a long-term American visitor fascinated by the undercurrent and tension of a post-Soviet country, and as part of the Ukrainian diaspora visiting the homeland.
Pandemic Parenthood is the result of turning to photography to find a solution to the anxiety that plagued our days with two small children at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Worried Standing Still is a series of images made due to a strong emotional impulse while traveling through Ukraine alone, and the days before and after my trip. I was highly aware of my solitude, the intense opportunity to step foot on land that my parents never returned to, and the volatility of Ukraine’s freedom.
On assignment for the NY Times, I photographed Ukrainian campers about what it means to be Ukrainian during the war in Ukraine, July 2023.