2019 — ongoing
Student dormitories are the only type of social housing that exists in Ukraine nowadays. They were constructed during the soviet epoch and since that time, buildings and living conditions haven’t changed that much but Ukraine and its people did. I started to photograph dormitories in 2019 because they represented the co-existence of the soviet heritage and the new pro-European generation. This duality attracts me and it shows how the mentality of people from the ex-communist country changes due to globalization. Being inspired by Maidan revolution which started in 2013 by a student protest I wanted to make a sincere portrait of the generation born in independent Ukraine which turned towards European democratic values.
Students who live in dormitories have just left their families and moved into their first independent housing. They stay in their small rooms for only 3 or 4 years, yet they decorate them with a personal touch. All these buildings which look cold and unified from the outside hide diverse rooms that unite gloomy interiors and personal belongings, drawings, and posters of each student. Neither a family house nor a rented flat, dormitories are a kind of cocoon: the place of transition from teenage years to an adult life.
