Igor Efimov

Life in war changes a person—not only their routines but their consciousness. What shocked in the first months no longer surprises in the fourth year. You don’t get used to it, but you adapt. New rituals appear, like calluses—painful yet protective.

Nights and Days captures this in-between state. Much time has passed since the war began, and just as much likely lies ahead. In Ukraine no one expects anything anymore; making plans is a luxury. At night people hide from attacks; in the morning they dress up and return to daily life. The gap between night and day has become surreal, yet normal.

Igor Efimov’s project shows this mix of ordinary and extraordinary. A resident of Kyiv, he combines images of the aftermath of attacks with everyday scenes. Sometimes the traces of explosions are barely visible—just like in real life, where they sink into the background.

These frames reflect exhaustion, vulnerability, and resilience. They are fragments that form the prism through which Efimov sees the world today.

For me as an author, the war in Ukraine did not start suddenly on 24 February 2022. I had been working with this theme before, attempting to make sense of these upheavals through documentary photography, specifically through the personal stories of people connected to the war. Since 2014, I have worked on projects involving veterans, wounded heroes, and families of fallen soldiers. 

Now, after the full-scale invasion, the themes for artistic contemplation on the nature of war have become more diverse, and the reasons for military projects and for the military itself more numerous and, unfortunately, more urgent. Today, although more and more people worldwide are involved in our war, it is still a challenge to comprehend the war and its complexities: to grasp the motivation of the aggressor, to imagine how the families of the captives feel, to understand how to support a wounded warrior. 

Since photography is a familiar way for me to understand, I try to explain to myself and others, as I have done before, what this war is through my photographs. The series Unbroken is dedicated to severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers with amputations. The project aims not only to support the immediate participants and reconcile them with the new reality, but also to show this new reality to a wider audience. It intends to make veterans more visible to society and convey the message that people cannot turn away from these warriors. Quite the contrary, they, like no one else, deserve and need our attention and respect. 

In working on the project, I have tried to create photos which are truthful, without unnecessary embellishments, yet not overly tragic and dramatic. Our heroes are examples of strength and resilience, and I wanted to highlight this strong and optimistic side. Originally, these photos were meant to be accompanied by quotes from the warriors, thus empowering each other.