In Spovid (“Confession”), Ukrainian photographer Ira Lupu contemplates the collective experience of war among young Ukrainians who remained in the country during the hostilities in 2023 and 2024.

Documented in the natural areas of the Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Cherkasy regions, and on the frontlines of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, these young Ukrainians experience various, sometimes contrasting, states—struggle and calm, adaptation and maladjustment, isolation and unity, involvement and alienation, crisis and uplift, self-actualization and apathy.

Spovid speaks about the vastness of human experience and emotions, which, in the darkest times, seek and eventually find light. “In many spiritual traditions, confession is understood as opening one’s heart, and achieving sincerity before God and oneself. It is a sacrament of mercy, not a punishment for sins but a salvation of the person that grants them spiritual strength,” shares the artist.