Stolen Spring

• Photographer
  Alena Grom, Ukraine
• Living in Bucha and working in Irpin after the Russian occupation, I witnessed cities turned into ruins and a militarized landscape becoming everyday reality. This project enters a historical dialogue with photographs by a Polish photographer, who masked the ruins of Warsaw with decorative backdrops in 1945–1946. The protagonists are women affected by Russian aggression. Their stolen spring symbolizes lives interrupted by war, loss, and displacement, yet also survival and hope for Ukraine’s renewal.