2025 Photo Contest - Europe - Long-Term Projects

It Smells of Smoke at Home

Photographer

Aliona Kardash

DOCKS Collective, for Stern Magazine

Russia’s de facto ban on critical media and suppression of anti-war protests has created an alternative reality with its own take on what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine instead of a full-scale invasion. In this story, Aliona Kardash, Russian-born, but now resident in Germany, reflects on the loss of home, and on love for people who believe in a different version of reality. Making a return visit to her hometown, Aliona tries to capture how war transforms us, and to sustain the belief that personal bonds are stronger than the forces that tear us apart.

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Aliona Kardash
About the photographer

Aliona Kardash (b. 1990) is a documentary photographer from Siberia based in Hamburg, Germany.  Kardash graduated in journalism at the Tomsk State University in Russia, and in photography in the International Class of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover and the University of Applied Sciences an...

Read the full biography
Technical information
Shutter Speed

1/4

ISO

12.8

Camera

Z 6_2

Jury comment

The jury found this long-term project to be a deeply personal insight into the fractures within Russian society since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, revealing complexities often overlooked when viewing Russia as a monolith. The photographer visually conveys her melancholy regarding her connection to her family as they are influenced by state propaganda, grappling with the universal dilemma of how to hold to loved ones subsumed by state control. As conflict increasingly draws journalists into their own stories, this project reflects the nuance of their narratives, capturing a personal experience with global resonance.