#20_1-8

6
No.20 MARCH 29, 2018
CLOSE UP
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
“What unites these pictures is something
more than the pain of war”
An interview with the Italian
photojournalist who visited Ukraine
three times during the war
ROBERTO TRAVAN
UKRAINIAN SOLDIER, SERHII
By Yulia YARUCHYK
Photos courtesy of Roberto TRAVAN
il prossimo tuo” is the name
of an exhibit in Turin, Italy, which
displays 110 photographs, including
15 taken in Ukraine. Here,
“A(r)ma
the National Museum of the Italian
Risorgimento has brought together the destinies
of people from different countries and continents.
What unites them is one terrible word – war. The
authors of the pictures – Paolo Siccardi and
Roberto Travan – are well-known Italian
photojournalists who usually work in the world’s
“hot spots.” Travan, the author of 15 Ukrainian
pictures, works for the Italian newspaper La
Stampa. It is he who hit upon the idea of
DEBALTSEVE, 2016
organizing this high-profile exposition. Roberto
says what unites these pictures is something
more than war. Faith, religion, God or what is left
of God in a real war – this thin, sometimes
invisible, thread goes through the pictures taken
at different times in Afghanistan and Israel,
Ukraine and Syria, African countries, and the
Caucasus. It is difficult to translate the exhibit’s
name into English without losing the meaning. In
Italian, “Arma il prossimo tuo” (“Arm thy
neighbor”) is almost consonant with the biblical
“Ama il prossimo tuo” (“Love thy neighbor”).
Travan has visited Ukraine three times during
the armed conflict, mostly as a freelance photographer.
The journalist is going to visit eastern
Ukraine this year, too. The Day spoke to
Roberto about the importance of the exhibit’s
Ukrainian part, Ukraine in the Italian media
space, and the importance of photography as a
genre in journalism.
Roberto, you chose a picture taken in
Ukraine for the exhibit’s billboard. It looks like
all the publications that wrote about the exhibit
carried the photo of a Ukrainian soldier. This
photo became the exhibit’s “hallmark” of sorts.
“Yes, that’s true. The story of this picture is
incredible and dramatic. It shows a Ukrainian
soldier, Serhii, whom I met near Donetsk. The
photo expresses two essential elements of the exhibit
– war and faith. Serhii stood by a ruined industrial
facility with a Kalashnikov gun in hand
and a cross in the front pocket – I saw it at once.
Serhii and I saw each other just for a few seconds
because this photo was taken under fire. We ran
away in different directions without even getting
to know each other better. In a month or so I published
this photo in Facebook and, unfortunately,
received sad news from a Ukrainian colleague
who also worked with me in the Donbas – Serhii
had died in action. Naturally, my photographer
friends in Ukraine, to whom I also sent the photo,
know about our exhibit. It went viral in Facebook
and the internet as a whole. A few days ago
Serhii’s daughter wrote to me, asking to send her
all of her father’s pictures that I have. It is difficult
to describe what I felt at the moment. It
seemed to me that I’d reopened this girl’s wound.
For we, photo reporters, photograph war and see
the same war on these pictures, rarely thinking
that these people have a private life, interests,
and feelings outside the war.
“Unfortunately, he is not the only soldier on
my photos, who is no longer among us. And it’s
not simple. Photographers, journalists ought to
take a neutral attitude to these events, but it is
impossible to remain indifferent in these conditions.”
You’ve photographed armed conflicts in
various countries, on different continents.
What do you think singles Ukraine out?
“What impressed me the most is the cohesion
of Ukrainians in this war and solidarity of civilians
who do not stand clear of the armed conflict
and are also fighting – just in other ways. I visited
a lot of Donetsk region villages and met many
local residents. The conditions they are living in
are terrible. But these people chose to stay behind
on their native land in spite of everything.
“I was also struck very much with the fact
that the whole country helps these frontline residents
and the military. The daily work of volunteers,
who gather food, clothes, and medicines,
is also nothing but another way of fighting
in this war.”
This exhibit is of paramount importance. La
Stampa is one of the few publications that did
and do write about events in Ukraine. Other
Italian media cover this topic limitedly and unwillingly.
“Hundreds of people have visited the exhibit
in the past two weeks. The exhibit was to last
until May, but, owing to great public interest, it
was decided to extend it until September. Maybe,
we’ll manage to hold it in Rome next year. My
observations show that Ukrainian photos form
one of the most interesting parts of the exposition
for spectators. Of course, the main objective
of the exhibit is to make society reflect on war as
such and to remind that a lot of armed conflicts
are now going on in the world. These conflicts
have been dragging on for years and, maybe for
this reason, are becoming invisible to peaceful
countries. You are right that the Ukraine war is
little spoken of. Yes, but little is also being said
about the wars in South Sudan, Nagorno-
Karabakh, etc. People are just concerned about
other problems, and wars seem to be far away.”
Photography is extremely important to The
Day as a genre of journalism and a way to put
certain ideas across to readers. What can you
say about Italian publications?
“I think photography is no less important to
Italian publications. It must be a demand of
time. The speedy development of the internet
has provided an opportunity to inform readers
by means of a greater amount of visual information,
for the print media are elementarily short
of space. Sometimes one picture can say more
that a big text. A photo can draw the attention
of a much broader audience. There is no language
barrier here. So, I think photography as a
genre can have a dramatic impact on the information
space we have.”