For Vitalii, war is not only defined by the dynamics of combat but also by a liminal condition in which time moves simultaneously too fast and too slowly. The distorted colours of the series reflect the mind’s defensive attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible, transforming the battlefield into a space of abstraction. Herasymenko’s gaze focuses on the silhouettes of fellow soldiers, their faces, and everyday routines, captured in an eerie glow. The human body appears both fragile and stripped of individual features, dissolving into the background radiation of machinery and weapons. These objects emerge not merely as tools but as sacred artefacts of struggle, portrayed from an almost religious perspective of mystical contemplation.
Heat Signatures is not a conventional war report but an investigation into the inner perception of existential threat. The project invites viewers to experience the frontline as a state of consciousness — a fragmented and hidden reality in which human presence exists under the constant pressure of technologies of mass destruction.
Vitalii Herasymenko (b. 1993) is a Ukrainian artist, cinematographer, and serviceman whose current practice focuses on documenting the experience of war through the lens of conceptual photography. Drawing on his background in film and linguistics, he explores the boundary between reality and its digital distortion. His work attempts to capture the fragmentation of human perception under extreme pressure, where the frontline appears not as a geographical location but as a complex cognitive space. Through his photographic series, Herasymenko consciously moves beyond traditional documentary approaches in search of a new visual language capable of describing contemporary warfare.

The title of the project refers to the ideas of testimony and accountability. These images function not only as records of reality but also as acts of witnessing — evidence that may one day contribute to processes of reflection, justice, and judgment. At the same time, Tribunal is a story of agency and resilience. The people portrayed in the photographs appear not merely as witnesses to crimes but as active bearers of will, dignity, and the pursuit of freedom. The project documents not only destruction but also the formation of a shared experience of resistance that continues to shape contemporary Ukrainian identity.

Viera Blansh is a Ukrainian photographer working across documentary and fine art photography. She studied Style and Photography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. Beginning her career in the fashion industry, she collaborated with magazines, modelling agencies, and brands, exploring concepts of femininity through visual imagery.

Over time, her practice shifted toward documentary photography, focusing on themes of memory, war, human presence, and resilience. Since 2022, her work has been deeply engaged with documenting and reflecting on the experience of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, resulting in a series of black-and-white photographic projects.

Viera Blansh actively presents her work in Japan through exhibitions and cultural initiatives. Her photographs are exhibited internationally, fostering a visual dialogue about contemporary humanitarian challenges and the human experience amid profound historical transformations.

The use of analog photography is a fundamental element of the project. Film becomes not only a medium for recording images but also a physical witness to time itself. Scratches, imperfections, grain, and accidental light leaks reinforce a sense of memory’s fragility and the immediacy of presence. The project also engages with questions of authorship and distance: the photographs are created not by an outside observer, but by those directly experiencing the war. For this reason, the series functions not only as a document but also as a form of personal testimony and an attempt to preserve human presence within catastrophe.

Serhii Melnychenko is a Ukrainian photographer, artist, curator, and educator from Mykolaiv whose practice bridges documentary, conceptual, and staged photography. Born in 1991, he became the first Ukrainian photographer to receive the Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer in Berlin in 2017.

Through his work, Melnychenko explores themes of memory, corporeality, intimacy, social transformation, and the impact of war on human lives. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, his artistic practice has increasingly focused on questions of collective trauma, witnessing, and the visual memory of war.

In 2018, he founded MYPH (Mykolaiv Young Photography), an independent contemporary photography platform that has grown into a multifaceted ecosystem comprising a school, a community of photographers, a gallery, a publishing house, a magazine, and a photography award. Melnychenko is the author of numerous photobooks, curator of artistic projects, and participant in more than 200 international exhibitions, festivals, and contemporary art fairs worldwide.

Developed over several years of work across different regions of Ukraine, the project concentrates on places where industrial production has long shaped local identity and social life. Factories, mines, and extraction sites appear not only as economic assets but also as spaces embedded with histories of labour, resilience, and collective memory. Many of these territories have become strategic targets during the war, revealing complex connections between industry, geopolitics, and survival.

Working primarily with analog and panoramic photography, Critical Ground employs a slow and contemplative visual language. Rather than directly documenting combat, the project investigates landscapes, infrastructures, and human realities that exist beyond news headlines, inviting viewers to reflect on the hidden economic dimensions of contemporary warfare and their impact on everyday life.

Giulio Piscitelli (b. 1981, Naples, Italy) is an Italian documentary photographer and photojournalist whose practice focuses on migration, armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and their long-term social consequences. Since 2010, he has documented migration routes between Africa and Europe, post-war recovery processes, and conflict zones across the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Nagorno-Karabakh.

His approach combines documentary precision with a deep interest in memory, displacement, and human experience amid geopolitical transformations. Between 2013 and 2023, Piscitelli worked as a staff photographer for the Contrasto agency and collaborated with leading international publications, including The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian, Stern, Internazionale, La Repubblica, and De Volkskrant.

His work has received numerous international awards and nominations, including the World Report Award, the Ponchielli Prize, and support from the Magnum Emergency Fund. Piscitelli’s photographs have been exhibited at major international festivals and institutions, including Visa pour l’Image, War Photo Limited, and the Annenberg Space for Photography.

Alongside his artistic practice, he regularly lectures and conducts workshops on documentary photography, visual storytelling, and contemporary humanitarian challenges.

Rather than focusing on combat operations or specific military events, the series investigates the traces that war leaves within civilian spaces — in destroyed buildings, altered landscapes, abandoned places, and the everyday realities of those who remain. The photographs capture the remnants of ordinary life after war has passed through cities, villages, and natural environments.

Trenches, damaged homes, fragments of walls, emptied spaces, and transformed horizons become evidence not only of physical destruction but also of profound psychological and social change. Through a careful documentary approach, Urbano creates a visual archive of war that speaks to memory, loss, resilience, and the long-term consequences of violence for society.

The series raises questions about what remains after war and how societies preserve the memory of collective trauma. Urbano’s work reminds us that war does not end when the fighting stops; its consequences continue to shape people, cities, and entire generations. Vestiges and Echoes of War functions simultaneously as an artistic statement, a historical document, and an act of resistance against forgetting through the preservation of contemporary Ukraine’s lived experience.

Emilien Urbano is a French-Italian documentary photographer and reporter based in Paris. His practice focuses on armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and their long-term impact on societies. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he has consistently documented the war in the Donbas and other regions of the country, working within the tradition of slow journalism and long-term engagement with the communities and places he photographs.

Since 2012, Urbano has worked in some of the world’s most challenging regions, including Greece, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. His photographs have been published by leading international media outlets such as The Washington Post, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Le Figaro, Libération, Die Zeit, and Corriere della Sera.

For his project The Prisoners of Al-Malikiyah, he received an Award of Excellence in the General News category from the prestigious Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition. Through his photography, Urbano explores not only the consequences of war and conflict but also human resilience, survival, and the preservation of dignity in times of crisis.