In the weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv, the capital, became a city transformed. Much of its population evacuated. New defense units gathered and took up arms. Field kitchens, aid stations, bomb shelters and evacuation convoys sprouted into functional shapes. The city endured intermittent bombardment.
This altered streetscape became the uneasy milieu of Alexander Chekmenev, a Ukrainian documentary and portrait photographer who since the 1990s has visually chronicled his country’s post-Soviet life.
Chekmenev, who is 52, took care of his family early on, ensuring that his teenage daughter reached safety in Slovakia. He himself remained, venturing out on assignment for The New York Times Magazine to find those who stayed put. Carrying a medium-format Pentax camera, he met some people and approached others as they walked the streets, labored in their new roles or huddled in shelters.