Photo Exhibition
LIVING IN WAR; UNIQUE PHOTOS FROM UKRAINE
Photojournalist Eddy van Wessel has been taking snapshots of everyday life in war-torn Ukraine since 2022 – as in the city of Bakhmut, for which he was previously awarded the Silver Camera prize. On Tuesday 9 December, it was announced that his work again came in for high praise when Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant included his book Ukraine in the list of Best Dutch Photo Books of 2025.
Using (analogue) photography, Ukraine sees van Wessel deliver a poignant account of a war that has been ongoing for the past four years. Central to his work are the people that suffer the immediate effects of the conflict: frontline soldiers, civilians in hiding and families fleeing the violence. His photos not only show the physical devastation, they also illustrate the mental and emotional toll of being exposed to prolonged large-scale violence.
Through the lens of Dutch photographer Eddy van Wessel, you enter the uprooted daily lives of Ukrainian people. His photos show the bizarre reality of war in contrasting tones of black and white – someone heating a bowl of soup on their car bonnet; buildings shot to pieces, distorted into art; teenagers at play, diving from a mine-packed bridge in wartime summer.
Each image in War Stories: Ukraine up close demonstrates the power of photography as a narrative medium, in a penetrating combination of palpable suffering, visual beauty and human resilience.
Every photo hammers a nail into your soul, and seeing the next image continues to drive the nail even further in. Van Wessel pictures the victims of the war with a great deal of respect and discretion. Each photo is good, urgent, complete; each photo tells a new story. This is a photographer who knows what he is doing. Silver Camera jury
Since October 2024, van Wessel’s photographs have been on display as part of the War Stories exhibition at the National Military Museum (NMM) in Soesterberg. Since the exhibition opened, the photographer has been back to Ukraine several times.
Which is why this winter the NMM is updating the exhibition with new stills and video footage from his latest trip during which van Wessel for the first time videoed himself working as a photojournalist in a war zone. The camera was on, capturing dangerous and moving moments alike. What makes this even more special is that, in addition to his trusty analogue camera, he also took a large-size wooden camera with glass plates with him – a device from the First World War (1914–1918), which was made in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Separated by war: intimate video portraits
In addition to over sixty carefully selected photos and associated collection items, War Stories. Ukraine up close comprises four mini cinemas. Ukrainian filmmaker Lesya Kharchenko and Dutch filmmaker Thomas Roebers have each made two films for this exhibition.
Men fight, women and children flee. Friends are separated, imprisoned by the Russian army. The war forces ordinary citizens to live apart. In the four intimate video portraits by Kharchenko and Roebers, some Ukrainians open up on how this is impacting them.
Each portrait focuses on a single serviceman – a hero, as the Ukrainians call them, or someone who has been captured by the Russians and has survived. A special feature is that the portraits have been edited using material that the one filmmaker has filmed for the other, and vice versa.
We would like to express our gratitude to Maryna Bohdanova, Oleksandr Tulinov and Valentyn Bohdanov, who gave us permission to use their music in the films.
Form, light and emotion – listen to the story behind every photo
Every photo tells the story of ordinary people living and surviving in a war on a European border, and of a landscape disfigured by battle. Every photo, however, is also a snapshot. Before and after the immortalization, outside the frame of the lens, another story exists. At the exhibition, listen to Eddy van Wessel through the audio tour: What preceded a particular photo? What happened afterwards? And why did he opt for black and white or for a specific composition?
The War Stories. Ukraine Up Close audio tour can simply be followed on your own mobile phone – just scan the QR codes. Tip: bring your own headphones or earbuds for an even more personal experience.
Documentary: War Stories Ukraine
In his short documentary entitled War Stories Ukraine, van Wessel explains how the photos he took using this vintage camera show how little has changed over the last one hundred plus years: people are continuing to wage war. The documentary and some of these glass plates will be on display as part of the exhibition.
Next year, War Stories is set to be updated on a regular basis with the addition of digital photo presentations. Each of these presentations will show van Wessel’s latest shots, including the photos he will be taking on his upcoming trips to Ukraine. The images will be put into context by way of map projections, showing visitors exactly where each photo was taken.
War through the lens of Silver Camera winner Eddy van Wessel
Eddy van Wessel (1965) is a Dutch independent photographer with extensive experience in disaster and conflict areas, such as Chechnya, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine. His photos have been published across the world in magazines and newspapers.
During his career, he has won four Silver Cameras, which is the ultimate accolade for Dutch photojournalism. This is an unparalleled achievement. In 2022, Van Wessel was awarded the Silver Camera for his characteristic black and white photos of the war in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. A selection of photos from Bakhmut is displayed in War Stories. Ukraine up close.
In addition to his career as a photographer, Eddy van Wessel is the father of twins. For that reason, his report on the funeral of 14-year-old twins Yuliya and Anna – who were killed in a pizzeria bombing – was especially striking. Van Wessel: “It’s something about which you’d normally say that you need to be objective. But in my opinion, you stand there first and foremost as a human being; a human being with a camera. And you should just try to capture this intensity and that sorrow, in all its fierceness.” These photos are also featured in the exhibition.
I hope that people will think… what the fuck is happening there? And that they will eventually understand what a war does to someone. If that happens, it will make me quite happy. Photographer Eddy van Wessel, four-time Silver Camera winner. Photo credit: Hans de Kort.
This exhibition contains disturbing images. If you feel the need to talk about this, you can always turn to one of our staff members. They are there for you.
Further discoveries
This exhibition was co-funded by several cultural funds, including Vfonds, Mondriaan Fonds, VSBfonds, het Cultuurfonds, en K.F. Hein Fonds