Womb

• Prize
  Silver in Editorial/Conflict
• Photographer
  Alena Grom
• Photo Date
  june 2018

Photographs about life during the war. The project was created by a photo artist in 2018 on the front-line territory of Donbass. A Ukrainian photographer from Donbass, Alena Grom, shows life despite the odds. The pictures are based around the stories of women who decided to give birth to a child while living in a war zone. The photo artist builds her work on medical parallels where soil and shelter take the literal form of a picture of an ultrasound of an abdomen. Residents of mining towns are an intrauterine fetus that develops and lives a full life, but in full dependence on its mother.

Ukrainian artist, photodocumentist Alena Grom was born in Donetsk. In January 2014 she was forced to leave her home and hometown due to military events in Donbass. In such conditions photography has become a salvation for Ms. Grom and a way to escape from a traumatic reality. Since 2017 she has lived in Bucha. As a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, Grom and her family became refugees for the second time. However, her photos are not illustrations of pity or grief, they are an affirmation of life. Life against the odds — one of the main themes of the artist.