Please join Synkroniciti in welcoming back Ukrainian photographer and writer Viktoriia Sorochuk with the second of a series of photo essays exploring her displacement from her homeland due to the war. “Diaries During Wartime Part Two: Cities: Soundtracks of Life” describes the way war disrupts the rhythm of cities and how it feels to be in a foreign city unable to go home.
“I had to move to one of the big cities in Poland, ending up in an apartment building squeezed between a very loud tram line and a railway road, with an ambulance dispatch unit just up the road. The whining of sirens never stopped. Hearing them, I imagined Kharkiv and Odesa drowning in these sounds every single day and night. The apartment buildings around me sat tight and enclosed the sky with the old soviet ugliness. Only at night, the empty eyes of the windows filled up with the life of the lights inside the apartments. Sometimes I could see the moon squeezed between the concrete skeletons trying to make its way up into the night sky. ”
Viktoriia uses a short photo sequence to illustrate the eerie nature of the experience. An apartment building is blurred and shown in various times of day and night to paint a picture of disorientation. When people are unable to work or relax, when bombs are changing the landscape and creating all manners of dangers, the city loses it soundtrack and the people lose their place and sense of identity They are haunted not only by what has happened, but by what might have been.
Read “Diaries During Wartime Part Two: Cities: Soundtracks of Life” in Synkroniciti’s “Haunting” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/. You don’t want to miss this important voice. She will be back in “Identity.”
My name is Viktoriia Sorochuk, and my superpower is—well, I am Ukrainian: I can cook a three-course meal even if my fridge is empty, make my husband nervous with just one phrase “Honey, we need to talk” and use Latin quotes just for the sake of making people look at me with round eyes.
While studying at school I hated writing essays. It was total torture for me and now I write with great pleasure. The best part is that others like to read what I write. As a kid I tried to learn watercolours but since I wasn’t patient enough today my best friend is a DSLR camera. The result is somewhat instant unless I forget to charge its battery or insert the memory card. I love dogs, good music and good visual art.