On Butterflies and Dinosaurs

Launched in early 2025, this ongoing project follows Ukrainians over sixty who fled the war and now live in Slovakia. It is about the paradoxical reality they live in, where starting over late in life means holding sadness and humor at the same time.

On Butterflies and Dinosaurs, launched in early 2025, is an ongoing project following Ukrainian women and men over sixty who fled the war and now live in Slovakia. It is about the paradoxical reality they live in, where starting over late in life means holding sadness and humour at the same time.

Many of the people I photograph were born during or shortly after the Second World War. Decades later, they are again living through displacement. I initially thought there might be some shared strength or common way this generation deals with what happened, but very quickly that idea fell apart. The people I met were too different for any common formula to make sense.

By the time I started the project, the first shock had passed, but their lives were still far from settled. They were building new routines and finding new points of reference in a place they had never expected to live in. The ordinary could feel strangely normal and completely absurd at the same time.

As the project developed, straightforward portraiture no longer felt enough. The work became more staged, playful and deliberately artificial, while remaining rooted in real encounters and everyday life. Humour and absurdity allowed me to reflect a reality that already felt slightly shifted, and to move away from familiar expectations of how older displaced people are supposed to look and behave.