As war rages on in Ukraine, we wanted to know how Ukrainian photographers have been coping as they had to put down their cameras, shutter their businesses and pack their suitcases. Sergey Volkov is an award-winning Ukrainian photographer whose wedding and portrait images recently scored 80 or above in WPPI The Annual’s photo competition and hung in the print gallery at WPPI 2022 in Vegas. In the last few weeks, though, he has set down his camera and has instead picked up sandbags. The photographer is one of the millions of Ukrainians displaced by the invasion of Russian troops that began on Feb. 24. Irina Dzhul, a fine-art photographer, fled Kyiv with her two children. The three of them carried her camera, a cat, two backpacks, and suitcases across four countries, including five kilometers (3.1 miles) on foot.

The largest military movement in Europe since 1945 comes just two years after the start of a worldwide pandemic. making it the second time Volkov has had to shut down his business in less than three years. But, to the father of a 6-year-old, the shutdown of a business is trumped by a concern for the safety of his family and countrymen.

[Read: How Photo Industry Companies are Helping as the War in Ukraine Rages On]

“I don’t even know when the photography industry will be able to return to its former state,” Volkov says. “Today, the most important question is ‘Will Ukraine exist?’ If our people endure, we can restore this monstrous destruction. The only thing that cannot be fixed is the crippled destinies of thousands of people. Too high a price for the freedom of the Ukrainian people.”

While the Rivne-based photographer has been filling his time loading sandbags, setting up military checkpoints on the roads, and loaning financial assistance, others have traveled for days to bring their families to safety. Dzhul spent six days traveling with her two children, ages 12 and 9, by car, train and even foot to Amsterdam, which is nearly 2,000 kilometers from Kyiv.

Six days after the start of the war, Dzhul made the decision to evacuate with her two children. Her mother and stepfather remained behind. “Bombs exploded nearby, walls rattled, a siren howled,” she says. “I no longer wanted to be there. My nerves and psyche could not stand it.”

[Read: Support for Ukraine: A List of Resources]

The first leg of her journey involved 10 hours of driving and standing in corridors to reach Lviv. At the Polish border, the three of them—plus their cat—walked for five kilometers and stood in line for four hours before a woman offered room in her vehicle. The family met with Volkov’s nephew and then traveled to Warsaw. The leg from Vasava to Berlin was by train, which meant nine hours on a train with standing room only. By the time the three of them reached the hotel in Amsterdam, they spent an entire week without leaving the room, all ill with fever.

Dzhul managed to carry her camera on the journey, but not her computer. “These are terrible emotions,” she tells me of her journey. “ You can’t think about photography because you’re saving your children.” She says she hopes to find work in the Netherlands.

Volkov echoed similar struggles to pick up the camera. “After the outbreak of the war, I never took the camera in hand. I’m trying to help our army in any way I can. I helped with physical strength, loaded sandbags, helped to set up checkpoints on the roads, [and] financial assistance.”

Volkov also took in his brother, sister-in-law and their two children from Kyiv. He said he plans to take the women and children to Europe if troops advance towards his home in Rivne on the west side of the country. His parents live in Genichesk, the first city occupied by Russian troops, and are now completely cut off from the rest of Ukraine, he adds. As he was chatting with Rangefinder, an airstrike hit a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

The war has also sparked outrage in Ukrainian photographers living in the U.S. “My stomach is in knots every morning knowing that inevitably another Ukrainian, family, mother, father, child or solider will have lost their life,” says Paul Von Rieter, a California-based wedding and portrait photographer whose father is Ukrainian. His heritage and the recent events inspired a photoshoot with a Ukrainian model during WPPI.

“A range of emotions have flooded our family, especially in light of looking at past photos that were taken in Ukraine,” says Vitaly Manzuk, a California-based wedding photographer whose mother is Ukrainian.
“…We make connections with photos because by nature they make us feel something. It just hurts that much deeper when the people in those photos are suffering.”

Through the Christian organization Good Call Ministries, where he serves as CFO, Manzuk has been working with his family to provide aid to those in Ukraine. The organization has been transferring funds directly to Ukrainian families in need and imported a bullet-proof vehicle that is now helping orphans and elderly in Kyiv. The organization has also helped a local bakery go from making 200 loaves of bread per day to 1,200 loaves to give to families in Kyiv that have run out of food.

“There are several ways photographers can help,” Manzuk says. “First, pray for peace, and for the senseless killing of people to end. The common people always lose in war. Secondly, talk about it, don’t become desensitized to hear about it daily on the news. Ukraine is full of kind people, families and children who have been thrown into an evil pit of war and the people need our help. Thirdly, an impactful and meaningful way photographers can help us by donating money to organizations who are on the ground helping those in need.”

He added that donors should ensure that they are working with a reputable organization. Because of the challenge of shipping items, he says that many organizations are in need of monetary donations to purchase needed items closer to the crisis.

“Just because Ukraine is thousands of miles away, you can still make a real impact in the lives of hurting Ukrainians with your financial donations.”

For additional nonprofits aiding Ukrainians, visit this list of ways to support Ukraine.