Kieran Kesner's stunning portraits of people and protests in Ukraine

There’s something wonderfully honest about Kieran Kesner’s portraits of Ukraine. His camera acknowledges there’s a civil war tearing the country apart – there are protests and soldiers and guns and casualties – but this isn’t the sum total of what is happening there. There are still priests saying prayers and farmers plucking potatoes from the fields and cyclists on their bikes; what we see on the news is only part of the story Kieran suggests.

Travelling through the country earlier this year, Kieran “met with people to hear their stories and listen to their different points of view.” With Journey through Ukraine, he’s captured these varied perspectives and the contrasts – violence and beauty, corruption versus hope – which are coming to characterise parts of the country. This is a document of the dignity, the drama and the danger of day-to-day life in Ukraine at this important moment.