As a Ukrainian born British artist and photographer, I devote a considerable part of my practice to managing my wellbeing through intuitive film photography to reflect on the world consumed by conflict, war, division and artificial resolutions plastering deep wounds of ancestral pain. I used a point-and-shoot camera for this project in order to disconnect from the habit of framing and composing ‘the narrative’, because it simply cannot be framed.

The raw emotion that is felt at the front lines, the war images I often cannot bring myself to even look at - they still exist. In addition, there is a deep need within me to express my reflective emotions in response to the triggers of ancestral memories of the Second World War, as well as my own lived experience as a child, of the collapse of the Soviet Union, observing the manifestations of cultural difference created by this event.

This photographic film expired in 1991 and was shot at the Wells Cathedral and the City of Wells before and after the service, which included beautiful music. There is a dedicated Ukrainian prayer room where I usually sit and listen. Far from being a religious person, I find this to be a very calming and positive activity. I reflect the accumulated emotion from the environment within this peaceful place, which than takes form as an image on a strip of film. It is allowed to be, as it is, with no agenda or message.