Documentary photographer and visual artist Nataliya Rudenko invites you to their solo exhibition “Road of Life”, a powerful and intimate multi-media reflection on displacement and complex trauma of the prolonged war in Ukraine.
As Russian attacks intensify and the frontline moves closer, residents of towns and villages across eastern Ukraine are forced to make impossible decisions. Carrying only what they can take with them, they leave behind homes, possessions, pets, gardens, and lives built over decades, departing with no certainty of when, or if, they will return.
Many volunteer evacuation teams work across the Donetsk region, helping civilians leave frontline communities. In March and April 2026, Natasha joined the team of volunteer project “Road of Life” with whom they evacuated approximately 200 people from the town of Druzhkivka and nearby villages. Located roughly 8 miles from the frontline, these communities now fall well within the reach of modern drone warfare. In the current war, the so-called "kill zone", the area within which armed drones can identify and strike targets, extends up to approximately 19 to 20 miles from the frontline.
The portraits bear witness to this moment of departure. Photographed at the doorsteps of lost homes, along evacuation routes and at collection points, they depict individuals and families suspended between the lives they once knew and an uncertain future elsewhere. Their expressions, belongings, and presence speak not only to displacement, but also to the quieter realities that precede it.
Contemporary warfare is increasingly experienced not as a sequence of isolated events but as an ongoing condition. Missile strikes, drone attacks, air raid alarms, and the constant possibility of violence create an environment in which uncertainty becomes embedded within ordinary existence. Over time, people adapt. Air raid alarms become background noise. Protective measures become routine. Visible signs of war merge into the landscape of everyday life. Sounds, objects, and experiences that elsewhere signify safety, leisure, or normalcy acquire entirely different meanings. The buzz of a drone overhead becomes a warning. The sound of gunfire can signal protection.
Through photography, installation, sound, and video, the exhibition invites viewers to encounter this altered reality. The portraits on the walls stand as witnesses to experiences that cannot be fully captured by statistics, maps, or reports. Looking back at the viewer, they connect the abstract realities of war to individual lives, reminding us that displacement begins long before the moment of evacuation. It begins when uncertainty, fear, and adaptation become woven into the fabric of everyday life.
