This charity photo project gave Ukrainian children disposable cameras to capture life through their eyes

Behind Blue Eyes is a photo project and charity, initiated by two humanitarian aid workers Artem Skorohodko and Dmytro Zubkov, after the de-occupation of the north of Ukraine from Russian forces, in April of 2022. Both helping to supply de-occupied villages such as Lukashivka, in the Chernihiv region with food and basic necessities, the pair found themselves forming deep connections with local children in their journey across the north east of Ukraine.

“Every time we visited the villages, we observed and communicated with local children and were impressed by their perceptions, positivity, sincerity [...] They have saved their sense of childhood despite the horrible events of the war, sometimes living in the shelter under the bombs and missile attacks. This exceptional energy majorly inspired us, and generally, we felt emotional uplift upon every return to Kyiv,” shares Artem. On the search for a way to capture and share this with people across Ukraine “who desperately needed it” at the time, Dmytro organised a fundraiser for the children of Lukashivka with the idea of giving disposable cameras to local kids in order to organise a charity photo exhibition from the results.

Two years later, with visits to 19 of Ukraine’s villages in a growing team, making a collection of over 4000 unique photos, Artem and Dmytro’s project has captured “all the sides of the consequences of the war in the de-occupied territories”.

Contrary to the often one-dimensional media coverage of these villages as completely lifeless and destroyed, explains Artem, these photos captured by children as young as seven, “show the real life there”, and how thousands of families have had to adapt their lives to the conditions of war. Despite the destruction, “the children’s ability to find beauty and joy in their surroundings is a testament to their resilience”, he says.

Given the freedom to engage with the disposable cameras however they liked, these young photographers have documented harsh images of war: the ruins of their homes, their boarded up schools, and the remains of Russian military equipment. There was a place however, for images in which “you can see childhood”: sunsets, pets, flowers, friends and football games were all captured by small hands.

For Artem, all of the images collected over the years “speak to the vitality and resilience of Ukrainian people”. What struck him the most, however, amongst all these photographs, was the amount of clear skies these children were documenting on film. “You wouldn’t see a single roll without it.” he says. “They are brave enough to look up there and keep romanticising something, which has become a symbol of threat for adults, after thousands of rockets falling down on us from these skies.”

Under the current uncertainty in Ukraine, it has been challenging for Behind Blue Eyes to build a strategy for the photo project over the years and plan its future. Alongside their expeditions to villages, photo exhibitions and the recording of a new podcast to share children’s stories, the group have now had the ambition to organise a festival of creativity for children ages 10-14 in de-occupied villages in the south of Ukraine. In the hope to help shape the future of these young people, and keep the project alive, they are planning to share more opportunities to share creativity in “communities often isolated from cultural epicentres”. Artem concludes: “We continue to move according to our basic idea — belief children should dream and bravely look to the future despite the traumatic war experience.”