The Russian military aggression against Ukraine is causing immense damage to the country: destroyed cities, villages, infrastructure, and industry. Both military personnel and civilians, including children, continue to die. Millions of Ukrainians seek refuge in other countries, fleeing the horrors of war.

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the southern region of the country, which includes the city of Mykolaiv, has suffered significant losses and damages, with some southern territories still occupied. This situation changes the demographics and affects the moral and psychological state of the population, as well as the development of cities, the economy, culture, and more.

In this context, the exhibition "Tattoos of War" was born. Four of the five series in it were captured by photographers from the Mykolaiv School of Conceptual and Art Photography (MYPH), and the fifth was created by the school's founder, Sergey Melnitchenko. All five photographers set out to interpret the war and its perceptions through their lenses.

"Tattoos of War" is about layers and strata. It is about collective memory. About reflections. About feelings and emotions. About what will stay with us forever – our shared memories. Everyone has their own, but we all speak about the same thing: the pain.

MYPH

MYPH is a school of conceptual and art photography, founded in 2018 by Sergey Melnitchenko in his hometown of Mykolaiv. The institution aims to expand the awareness and understanding of contemporary conceptual and artistic photography. In its six years of existence, more than 250 students have graduated from MYPH. For many, this is the first step in their creative careers. For others, the training is a starting point for new approaches to photography. But MYPH is not just an educational institution; it is also a collective of photographers with more than 100 active authors.

About Mykolaiv

Mykolaiv is a city in southern Ukraine, located at the confluence of the Inhul River and the Southern Bug estuary, 65 km from its mouth at the Black Sea. Before the war began in February 2024, the city's population was 470,000 people. The proximity of Mykolaiv to the Black Sea underpins the region's long-standing traditions in shipbuilding. The city is one of the largest shipbuilding centers along the entire Black Sea coast. This makes it an extremely important strategic site and, unfortunately, one of the most heavily attacked Ukrainian cities by Russia.

Series

Tattoos of War

Sergey Melnitchenko

The series by the founder of MYPH gives its name to the entire project. At its core is the idea that behind the material damage of war to buildings and infrastructure lie thousands of fates, and all of this leaves an imprint on us, in our consciousness, shaping our future behavior patterns. Somehow, we continue spiritually "tattooed" with the damage from the material world.

Sergey Melnitchenko: "I set up a projector. Marina and Sergey, my friends from Mykolaiv, who had also left the city a year ago, sat on the bed. The photo from the projector imprinted itself onto their bodies and faces, creating a new layer—a kind of tattoo that will stay with them forever. There are thousands, tens of thousands, millions of people like them. Everyone has their own "tattoo." Each of us has our own most painful memory in the collective pain."

Hands that Smell of Bread 


Artem Humilevskiy

"Golden Ear" is a family agricultural enterprise on the outskirts of Mykolaiv, run by a woman and employing around 100 people. Since the beginning of the war, it has not stopped working even for a day.

Almost all employees remain at their posts because they understand their important mission. Tractor drivers participate in evacuating damaged equipment from the battlefield alongside the military; they sow newly demined fields; they load, transport, and distribute humanitarian aid.
The enterprise has managed to survive rocket attacks and restore its destroyed buildings and equipment. One of the combines exploded on a mine while harvesting sunflowers. Fortunately, the operator survived without serious injuries. It seems that nothing can break these people.

"Golden Ear" consists of two parts. One includes archival photos of employees and the enterprise's director, which the author chose to make black and white – like memories. The other features color portraits of some employees.

Boundary of Definition

Sofia Chaikovska

Currently, most people are in a state of uncertainty not only in a value-cultural or political sense but primarily in an existential sense. This is especially observed among the inhabitants of areas close to the front line.

"Boundary of Definition" is a series about the inability to clearly understand reality. In it, the author tries to highlight not only the "insignificance" of the individual but also the fact that a single human life has lost its importance and has become invisible.

Sofia Chaikovska: "At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, my grandmother sold her apartment in Ochakov and moved to Western Ukraine. All this time, she dreamed of returning home, but to the home where we went to the sea every morning, where we picked berries and fed the birds. To the home where I always felt the child's joy of rest and security. For the first time in two years, we faced the new reality. We got to know it, accepted the new conditions, and relived every street, every house, every broken tree, and shattered window."

Found Puzzle 


Oleksandr Savchuk-Savka

Oleksandr Savchuk tells the story of homeless people from Mykolaiv who, despite their personal difficulties and harsh fate, become an integral part of the resistance, sacrificing themselves and helping during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They self-organize and help prepare for street battles in Mykolaiv – placing anti-tank hedgehogs around the city, searching for and collecting tires and glass bottles for Molotov cocktails.

Each photographic fragment is like a piece of a puzzle – part of the overall picture of these people's lives and their contribution to their country's struggle for freedom. "Found Puzzle" is not just an artistic project. It is a documentary testimony to the greatness of the human heart during wartime.

In The Anamnesis, It Says "War." 


Ainur Sakisheva

The war has crept under the skin, spreads through the veins, and pulses with the rocket explosions. War is like a severe illness that knocks you down. It affects and destroys everything healthy in its path. It shows no pity for the elderly or the disabled. Destroyed souls in destroyed bodies.
Trembling voices tell terrible stories about the war. About lost vision, about disability, about hiding in basements for months, about the way to work under shelling. The war hits the most vulnerable the hardest.

People are physically and mentally wounded. Devastation, despair, and anxiety become companions to existing diagnoses – diabetes, thyrotoxicosis. The medical record will not mention the impact of war on the patient.

The anamnesis of war includes deep traumatic experiences encoded in every person through their attempt to survive the war, through sleepless nights spent between shaking walls, through the loss of loved ones.
There is no immunity or cure for war. This disease is endured on one's feet.