These are the victims that Joseph Sywenkyj, an American photographer of Ukrainian descent, has documented in hospitals and rehabilitation centers around the country. It has often been depressing work, and he says he does it with the Ukrainian people in mind. “It’s important for them to understand the price of their independence,” he says.
I do not think about the presence of poetry when I am shooting and I would not describe it necessarily as an approach. It more or less just happens. It is just the way I see the world through my camera. I describe my photographs as poems in part because photographs, or any form of expression, are sometimes made through a labor of love while at other times they are made on the spot in a jolt of inspiration.
American photographer Joseph Sywenkyj has won the the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his work documenting the lives of people affected by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Olga Rudenko reports that at least 40 journalists were injured during protests in Ukraine Sunday. Joseph Sywenkyj, an American photographer who works in Ukraine, was among them, a spokesperson for The New York Times confirms in an email to Poynter. Sywenkyj shoots for the Times among other outlets.
