Photos from the Front. Journey to the War in Ukraine with Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Almost a year has passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine but for the inhabitants of the contested areas, the war has been a daily fact since distant 2014. While the Western media looked elsewhere, Anastasia Taylor-Lind was already in the field to document the impact of the conflict on civilian life. For the first time, her photos are on display in the United Kingdom, witness of a tragedy foretold and of the atrocious absurdity of every war. Internationally-renowned photographer, Taylor-Lind moves with a quiet gaze, almost innocent, around the front line, giving space to the stories of common people. Next to her, the Ukrainian journalist Alisa Sopova, whose voice accompanies the exhibition eloquently. In the halls of the Imperial War Museum, a tale in three acts retraces the entire path of the conflict - from the violent manifestations in Kiev in 2019 which brought about the fall of the Russian-backed government of Viktor Janukovyč to the exhausting civil war which, for eight years, bloodied the Donbass, up to the invasion of Eastern Ukraine by the Russian military and its shocking consequences. Devastated cities, uprooted lives, evacuations and devastating separations, all seen in silent images of desperate beauty.