At the beginning of 2025 I reached out to the photography company FOTOVRAMCI and shared my idea for a new project – to send disposable film cameras to Ukrainian soldiers stationed across different fronts, so they could capture their own lives, routines, and work. The company supported me and provided 25 cameras to bring the concept to life, for which I’m incredibly grateful. That’s how it all began in February 2025.

But the project didn’t stop at just photographs. Along with the cameras, I asked each participant to return them with a small artifact – something they personally chose and a handwritten letter. This way, I gathered not just a diary of the everyday lives of various servicemen and women. It became a full story of personal experiences, struggles, and memories. I collected artifacts that will remain part of our nation’s history after victory, reminding us of these challenging times. Together with the photos, they form a kind of anthology of our heroes who defend Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence.

I sincerely hope that when the war ends, every participant in this project will be alive. Because each of them has become much more to me than just a contributor –  they’ve become true friends.

Serhii Melnychenko (born 1991, Mykolaiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian visual artist, photographer, educator, and curator whose practice bridges conceptual, staged, and documentary photography. In 2017, he became the first Ukrainian photographer to receive the Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer (Berlin). In 2026, he received the main prize of the PhMuseum Prize (€5,000) for “Frontline Rolls” – a collective archive of daily life on the front line, documented by Ukrainian soldiers on disposable cameras over nine months. Since 2025, he serves as a nominator for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.

In 2018, Melnychenko founded MYPH “Mykolaiv Young Photography” which has since grown into a multidisciplinary arts platform comprising a photography school, artist community, gallery, agency, publishing house, the magazine 525 by MYPH, and the MYPH Photography Prize. Over 500 students have passed through MYPH programmes. The platform has presented more than 60 exhibitions across 14 countries.

His work has been presented at Paris Photo, Volta Art Fair, Photo L.A., Photo Basel, and Unseen Amsterdam. His photographs are held in private and public collections across Europe, Asia, and the United States, including the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (K*MoPA), Japan. He was selected for the European photography platform FUTURES in 2022 and received the Alexander Tutsek Photography Grant in 2023–2024.

Melnychenko lives and works in Ukraine.

www.melnitchenko.com

By Serhii Melnychenko