Fighters and mourners of the Ukrainian revolution

When I arrived in Kiev,

on the first of February this year,

Independence Square was
under siege,

surrounded by police
loyal to the government.

The protestors who occupied
Maidan,

as the square's known,

prepared for battle.

Stock-piling homemade weapons

and mass-producing improvised
body armor.

The Euro-Maidan protests
began peacefully

at the end of 2013

after the president of Ukraine,

Viktor Yanukoych,

rejected a far-reaching accord

with the European Union

in favor with stronger
ties with Russia.

In response, tens of thousands
of dissatisfied citizens

poured into central Kiev

to demonstrate against this allegiance.

As the months passed,

confrontations between police
and civilians intensified.

I set up a makeshift
portrait studio

by the barricades by (name) street

There, I photographed
the fighters against a black curtain

A curtain that obscured the highly
seductive and visual backdrop

of fire, ice and smoke.

In order to tell the individual
human stories here,

I felt that I needed to
remove the dramatic visuals

that had become so familiar and
repetitive

within the mainstream media

What I was witnessing was
not only news,

but also history.

With this realization,

I was free from the photojournalistic
conventions

of the newspaper and the magazine.

(names of people) were all ordinary men,

with ordinary lives from ordinary towns.

But the elaborate customs that they had bedecked
themselves in

were quite extraordinary

I say the word "costume" because

these were note clothes that had been issued
or coordinated

by anyone

they were improvised uniforms

made up of decommissioned military equipment

irregular combat fatigues and trophies taken from
the police

I became interested in the way
they were choosing to represent themselves

This outward expression of masculinity.

The ideal of the warrior.

I worked slowly, using an analog film camera

with a manual focusing loop, and
a handheld light meter

the process is old fashioned,

it gives me time to speak with
each person

and to look at them in silence

while they look back at me.

Rising tensions culminated
in the worst day of violence

on the 20th of February,

which became known as Bloody Thursday.

Snippers, loyal to the government,

started firing on the civilians in (name) street

Many were killed in a very
short space of time.

The reception of the Hotel Ukraina
became a makeshift mourge.

There were lines of bodies laid
in the street.

And there was blood
all over the pavements.

The following day,

President Yanukovych fled Ukraine.

In all, three months of protests

resulted in more than 120 confirmed dead.

and many more missing.

History unfolded quickly,

but celebration remained elusive in Maidan.

As the days passed in Kiev's central square,

streams of armed fighters

were joined by tens and thousands of
ordinary people

filling the streets in an act
of collective mourning.