Rory Peck Trust Profile picture
May 3, 2018 12 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
The 4th freelancer in our #WPFD18 series is Ukrainian photographer Alena Grom. Born in Donetsk, a city controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, Alena fled with her family to live in Kyiv. Her work focuses on children living in conflict zones and refugees in her country
Alena took this photo last spring in Marinka, a badly damaged city on the front-line of the armed conflict in Donbass. “The girl's name is Nastya,” the freelancer said. “She lives with her family, including her little sister, near military positions." [1/4]
“Their whole home is littered with fragments from bombings. While I was shooting, I could hear automatic fire and explosions behind their garden. I was shocked: neither the children nor the parents reacted to the shelling." [2/4]
“They said they were used to it – they had lived for years under constant bombardment. Their dog feels when a strong assault starts. When family members see the dog racing in search of a shelter, they go into the cellar. Sometimes they have to sit there for a whole day.” [3/4]
“I always feel fear when I come to the military zone. I'm afraid of shelling, I'm afraid to be taken into captivity or to fall into a mine. I go there in spite of this. That’s because children are there and I want to tell the world about them through their photos.” [4/4]
Alena took this shot in Trekhizbinka in December 2017, when volunteers gave a holiday to children living in frontline territories. “In the photo the children are all looking in different directions. They have no experience of posing. Parents don't have cameraphones.” [1/3]
“The children know what to do when shelling begins. Yet many families can’t do simple things like warm their home, wash, or cook food. The day before New Year's Eve in Novolugansk, there was heavy fire that burned down homes. They live with a constant sense of danger.” [2/3]
“The first time I encountered this phenomenon of children looking in all directions, I realised even if I'd wanted to make a photo for this purpose it wouldn't have worked. It's an inherent pattern in children of war. They don’t know how to behave in front of the camera.” [3/3]
#Freelance photographer Alena Grom visited the ATO zone in December 2017: “This portrait of me was taken in territory controlled by the Ukrainian military. I had been working on my #photography project about children in the conflict zone that morning.” [1/2]
“When I’m photographing children, I do not ask them to smile. I look in their eyes. Children living in war have adult eyes. After the shooting process, I always want to say something nice, something good, and to hug and somehow protect the children.” [2/2]
“This is a photo I took in Marinka while working on my project ‘Medium of Instruction’ about the children living on the frontline, of whom there are almost 500 – and how they can try to work towards education and development.”
Alena added: “The children need help, they need the world. My goal is to awaken the interest of the global audience to the problem of military conflict in #Ukraine through #photography.”

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Rory Peck Trust

Rory Peck Trust Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @rorypecktrust

Sep 26, 2018
First up in our #RoryPeckAwards spotlight series is #News finalist Al-Emrun Garjon, a Bangladeshi freelance photojournalist and videographer, shortlisted for his film The Rohingya Crisis [1]
100,000s of Rohingya Muslims have poured into Bangladesh since August 2017, fleeing persecution in the Rakhine province of #Myanmar. Garjon’s footage captures their struggle to survive this long journey in search of safety [2]
From September 2017 to April 2018, Garjon’s daily reports on the mass exodus of Rohingyas showed a deep commitment to covering breaking news and human-interest stories that illustrate human suffering in a new way [3]
Read 5 tweets
Sep 12, 2018
ANNOUNCING: Finalists for #RoryPeckAwards 2018 - outstanding films and footage this year from #freelancers across the globe bit.ly/2x6sTB5
Congratulations to the #RoryPeckAwards finalists for #News: @AlEmrunGarjon @HumamHusari and @MikelKonate! bit.ly/2x6sTB5
Congratulations to the #RoryPeckAwards finalists for News Features: @IlayaFilms @RoopaGogineni and @JManzano_Media! bit.ly/2x6sTB5
Read 4 tweets
May 4, 2018
The fifth and final freelancer in this week’s #WorldPressFreedomDay series is journalist & photographer Sally Hayden from Ireland, who currently focuses on migration, conflict and humanitarian crises. Here she is photographed [left] while reporting in Burkina Faso in 2014
The photo above was taken by Matus Krcmarik. Across the day we'll be sharing pictures & insights from Sally that give glimpses of her experiences as a #freelancer working internationally. Follow this thread!
"I took this in eastern #Sudan, close to the border with Eritrea, where I met teenagers & children who had fled compulsory, indefinite military service,” Sally said. “This was one of the few times I brought a fixer, as it's impossible to travel alone as a foreign woman in Sudan.”
Read 12 tweets
May 2, 2018
Day 3 of our #WorldPressFreedomDay series on the working lives of #freelancers worldwide - today we're sharing insights from freelance investigative journalist Mabvuto Banda, who lives and works in Malawi. Follow this thread across the day to hear about his experiences
The climate for journalists in #Malawi has improved over the last 15 years. Nonetheless Mabvuto has been arrested on numerous occasions during his twenty-year career in #journalism. In Malawi, a law still provides for the imprisonment of anyone who 'insults' the head of state.
Mabvuto said of the photo above: “This is me with reporters in the #newsroom. We were working on a story about the growing calls within the ruling party to push the current President to stand down." [1/2]
Read 7 tweets
May 1, 2018
For the second day of our #WPFD18 series exploring behind the scenes of freelancers at work in regions across the world, we'll be sharing insights from freelance photographer César Rodríguez in Mexico - a country that ranks 147th of 180 on @RSF_inter's World Press Freedom Index
Freelancer César Rodríguez was born in the western Mexican state of Nayarit, where he took this photo: “This was in a living room in a house in Tepic, Nayarit, where a clash between armed civilians and the navy took place." [1/2]
"At least five people died, and it’s believed that other armed civilians escaped. I chose this image because when I see it, it reminds me of places where people are at war – "official" wars – and it reminds me that here in #Mexico we have our own war as well.” [2/2]
Read 14 tweets
Apr 30, 2018
This is Syrian #freelance photographer Msallam Abd Albaset. Today he’ll be the first freelancer in this week’s #WPFD18 series to share photos from his workplace: Eastern Ghouta, #Syria.
هذا هو المصور السوري المستقل مسلم عبد الباسط. اليوم ، سيكون أول صحفي حر في سلسلة #WPFD18 هذا الأسبوع لمشاركة الصور من مكان عمله: الغوطة الشرقية.
"A difficult day for me as a news photographer was 4th April 2017. An air raid targeted my neighbours’ house. In the very first moments of the bombing, I was completely unable to photograph anything..." [1/2]
Read 16 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(