The present appearance of many cities in the Donbas is directly connected with the construction of plants. Severodonetsk is no exception. We found an archive of postwar photographs documenting of the Severodonetsk chemical plant construction. The photographer shot objects at different stages of the building. Many of these photographs capture builders and workers of the plant, who accidentally got into the frame.
Most of the photographs of that era are either staged, made by preinvited correspondents or pictures from family archives. None of these show the objective reality of that time. Before the arrival of the correspondent the workers were selected, prepared, dressed in beautiful clothes and suitable locations were found for filming. Family photos are often made on holidays, around city attractions or in natural surroundings. Unlike the staged photos, this archive is interesting because it depicts people in their natural working environment.
Today most of the plants are not operating at full capacity. Some of them are shut down completely, others are being demolished, or have already been demolished. What took decades to build was destroyed in a short time. The liquidation of plantsresults in a bounty of different types of scrap metal. The main material of our project is rusty metal. The idea of our project is not so much to show factories and their scale, the cities that were built, or what could have been, but rather the people. They are the past, the present and the future. Silhouettes of people appear as sources of light.
Photos from exhibition «Sources of light». Museum of local lore. Lisichansk. Ukraine. 2017.