CPOY 71 International Picture Story Bronze: Living on the Line of Fire

The photographic essay Living on the Line of Fire gives the viewer insight into the obscure scenery, the atmosphere and the people of the East-Ukrainian Front along the separatist city Donetsk. A life under shelling and constant fear, with which the inhabitants of the Grey Zone have learned to live. Excluding military scenes, „LOF“ is working with the mood and the reaction of the people living on the front, to tell the story of their past 24 month of living in this conflict area. These circumstances and the impact on the environment at the front are told in this work to shed light on this actual conflict and the effects to the civilian population. As on ongoing conflict in east Europe, which has been pulled out of the western media, I want to raise awareness about this situation and try to give the civilians a voice with this work.

Caption

Slide 3 of 8

November 25, 2015

Gafar(6) is sitting on a couch in the living room. Place: Mariinka, Oblast Donetsk; East Ukraine.Gafar was hit by a shrapnel in spring 2015, while he was sleeping in his room. There was a mortar attack in the split city of mariinka, which controlled by ukraine forces on one site and by the seperatists on the other site. A mortar shell came down in the yard and blew up his window in the room and parts of the shell were bursting through the room and one hit him on the head. He is rarely speaking since that and he's afraid of loud noises and turned into a state of shock.Circumstances: I was asking him to sit down on the couch while we were talking with his mother. He was climbing the couch up and down and his mother told him to stay calm. Then he starts to stare out of the window and I used the situation to photograph him like this.

Marcel Maffei / University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund

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