A man and a woman, each bedecked with medals, stand at a window framed by blossoms. The title reads “My Parents, 1988”. Beneath is a another photo entitled “The Same Window”. It shows the woman, now elderly, with a young man, perhaps her son or grandson. The father is no longer there.
I’m a big fan of the museum of the Great Patriotic War in Kyiv, which shows an unvarnished view of the conflict from the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact through to a room of remembrance for the millions of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who lost their lives. On 8 December a new exhibition combining famous war images with modern photographs about the lives of veterans in today’s Ukraine was formally opened. The images, both old and new, are terrific and, in some cases, moving. The exhibition runs until 31 December. I recommend it to anyone interested in photography, or indeed history.