Photo by Eric Bouvet, from the essay "Kiev's Fatigue"
Take a look at "Kiev's Fatigue" by Eric Bouvet. Really takes you there. Outstanding photography of a heartbreaking situation.
Mike
(Thanks to Norm Nicholson and Ken Bennett)
Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
David: "Wow. I'm up here in Michigan in the trees and snow, happily working away, thinking about much different stuff than what these humans are enduring. Once again, science fiction trumps itself and comes to be. Road Warrior images that make Road Warrior look like child's play. Very scary to know that all over the world there are people who are embroiled in situations that defy imagination. Very powerful images and extremely disturbing."
"Wow" indeed. Extraordinary photographs on several levels. Bouvet's photograph #36 with the torn-up paving stones littering the foreground created an immediate flash-back to the cannonballs in Roger Fenton's famous Crimean War photograph "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" … and, sadly, to lyrics of Pete Seeger's "Where Have all the Flowers Gone" — when will we ever learn?
Posted by: David Miller | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 01:22 PM
I've seen a lot of press images from Kiev depicting elderly woman and other "ordinary" folks but then on the other hand I've also read that the front liners are actually right wing extremists and neo nazis. Unsettling to say the least.
Posted by: Anton | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 01:48 PM
Looks a little like Les Miserables come to life.
Posted by: John Krumm | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 03:20 PM
"I've also read that the front liners are actually right wing extremists and neo nazis." That's the propaganda Moscow and the Ukrainian government is putting out to the west.
To the people in the Ukraine and Russia? There they're calling the protesters Jews...
It's unsettling alright but not necessarily for the reasons we first think.
There are many possible, mostly sad, reasons for that nearly 1000 meter stare on the gentleman's face. It's an exquisite, if painful, capture. I hope he survives and that life gets better for him and his loved ones.
Posted by: William Barnett-Lewis | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 07:06 PM
The ways things are headed we might be able to take those photos here in a few years.
Posted by: Bob Smith | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 07:23 PM
#21 stopped me in my tracks. We seem to be enured to photos of refugees, barricades, wounded, even bodies but the unseen agent of death is more terrifying as depicted here.
bd
Posted by: Bob Dales | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 08:04 PM
I'm struck with wonder at the courage of the people in Kiev. To face up to bullets day after day, week after week and keep standing their ground. I salute them.
Posted by: Peter Croft | Friday, 21 February 2014 at 08:42 PM
It's all very well for everyone to say "Well done, Ukraine", and congratulate them for choosing to move towards the EU and NATO, and break ties with their neighbours - geographical, historical, and cultural. But I'm far too cynical not to wonder: who says they can't have both? Why are the people of Ukraine, and the rest of us being told it must be one way or the other? Who gains from this false dilemma? What do they gain? Important questions, methinks.
Posted by: Chad | Saturday, 22 February 2014 at 03:54 PM
"Heartbreaking?" That wouldn't be the word I'd choose. Maybe "inspiring?" These people, tired of peaceful efforts that got them nothing, took to the streets, and now the latest news is that the President has run away. Sometimes victories come at a cost. Fortunately, there are people willing to pay.
Posted by: Marc Rochkind | Saturday, 22 February 2014 at 06:49 PM