©Alena Grom, Tatiana from Stolen Spring

This week Lenscratch is featuring the work of the 2023 winners of the International Women in Photo Association (IWPA) Awards.

Today is Alena Grom, a Ukrainian photographer, whose series Stolen Spring was one of four finalists in the Professional Category. A very personal project, Alena Grom, like the women she photographs, are survivors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Grom poses the woman in front of decorative backdrops to mask (or highlight) the damages of war, just as was done by post World-War II photographer Michael Nash to mask Polish ruins.

©Alena Grom, Svetlana from Stolen Spring

Stolen Spring

Stolen spring is a stolen life. Each photograph is a personal tragedy, but it is also a life-affirming story of a survivor, a hope that Ukraine will rise from the ruins.

At the beginning of 2022 Russian troops occupied and destroyed parts of the Kyiv region, including Bucha and Irpin, where I live and work. The war scenes became my immediate reality and routine. My second hometown is associated with mass murder, atrocities and war crimes committed by Russia. After Russia troops withdrew only in Bucha 458 bodies have been recovered, including 9 children. Every day I see people who are rebuilding their homes and their lives from the ruins and looking into the future.

I created a series of photographs in a historical dialogue with images by Polish photographer Michael Nash, who used his own decorative backdrop to mask Poland’s World War II ruins while shooting a portrait of a woman in1946.

Women who survived the Russian aggression, including myself, are depicted in my photographs. The occupation continued in the spring, people who lived through this tragic period did not notice how spring passed, how chestnuts and lilies of the valley bloomed, birds flew in. They were deprived not only of their homes, loved ones, work, health, but also part of their lives. For the IDPs from Donbass and Crimea it was the second tragic spring. –Alena Grom

©Alena Grom, Julia from Stolen Spring

Ukrainian artist and documentary photographer Alena Grom was born in Donetsk. In April 2014 she was forced to leave her hometown due to military events in Eastern Ukraine. Since 2017 she has lived in Bucha, a town outside of Kyiv.

As a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, Grom and her family became refugees for the second time, but returned after the de-occupation of Bucha.

These events largely affected her artistic practice. Photography became a salvation for Alena and a way to deal with the traumatic reality of war. Since 2016 Alena Grom’s work focuses on places affected by military aggression. Her lens captures victims of the war, migrants and refugees, and war-torn Ukraine in large.

However, her photographs are not illustrations of pity or grief. Life in spite of everything is one of the main themes of the artist.

Alena Grom’s projects were exhibited extensively in Ukraine and internationally; and recognised by a number of international photography awards. To name a few recent ones: LensCulture Portrait Awards 2023/ Finalist; 2022 Tokyo International Foto Awards / Prize Gold ; International Photography Awards “Best of Show 2022” by this year’s curator; Prix de la Photographie, Paris (PX3).

Follow Alena on Instagram: @grom_alena

©Alena Grom, Irina from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Elena from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Diana from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Arina from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Alyona from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Alena from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Albina from Stolen Spring

©Alena Grom, Valya from Stolen Spring