Kharkiv Blackout

From Euromaidan Press’ Facebook:

 The night is darkest just before the dawn

Kharkiv prepares for the night: it is pitch dark, like many other Ukrainian cities. The blackout makes it more difficult for Russian bombers to target the city, or for Russian saboteurs to plan attacks.

Photographer Paul Itkin made each of these frames over 7 minutes, because there was practically no light source in the city. Thanks to this, the stars resemble flying rockets.

"The night is darkest just before the dawn.

Perhaps this phrase is now best suited to describe Kharkiv.

I've been around enough, but I've never seen such dark nights in a city. This is so starkly clear on the very first evening upon arrival in the city. Looking out the window, you need at least a couple of minutes for your eyes to adapt so you can see at least something. It's the war blackout, curfew and no moon. I've never seen so many stars in a city.

Right after that, I began to think about which rooftop is best to shoot the city in this form ... I had taken many evening rooftop photos before, but this is completely different: climbing on the roof at night in a front-line city during a curfew under the sounds of sirens and explosions is some wild action, but it worked out. ...

But the city is standing, the Ukrainian flag is flying over the City Council, and on the right you can see the glow from the dawn and the silhouette of a construction crane.  This means that we will soon win and rebuild, the dawn is near🇺🇦

p.s: for the most daring, for complete immersion, a link to a recording of the sounds of the city, during which I took the picture.  (one of the explosions can be heard at 1:29)

itkinpaul.com/work/kharkiv-at-night

p.p.s: now there are many exhibitions dedicated to Ukraine, suddenly someone knows where this could go? I really want to see it printed in a huge format🤞🏻"

https://www.facebook.com/100004322232822/posts/2305899469564105/

Text & photos: Paul Itkin