A photo exhibition by serviceman and photographer Heorhii Suturін, entitled “A Glimpse Through the Smoke of Vovchansk”, has opened at the Roman Ivanychuk Regional Youth Library in Lviv.
The exhibition brings together a series of photographs taken by the author while serving in the Vovchansk district of Kharkiv region in 2024–2025. The images contain almost no direct combat scenes or depictions of the enemy – the main protagonists are people, nature and everyday life that continues despite the war.
Visitors can see a forest after shelling, abandoned yards, the evening sky, animals left without their owners, as well as the faces of soldiers. Each frame captures a contradictory reality in which pain and calm, destruction and beauty, fear and hope exist side by side.
The central work of the exhibition is the self-portrait “A Glimpse Through the Smoke”. In it, the smoke appears both as a real consequence of war, shrouding the horizon, and as a symbol of the pain endured, through which a person nevertheless continues to look ahead. This image sets the tone for the entire exhibition, which focuses not on death, but on life that does not disappear even in front-line conditions.
Heorhii Suturін is a volunteer, serviceman and photographer. In 2014 he took up arms to defend Ukraine and was wounded. In 2024 he returned to Ukraine and signed a contract with the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. From May 2024 to July 2025 he served in the Vovchansk district of Kharkiv region, where he created the series of photographs that formed the basis of the current exhibition.
The works can be viewed at the Roman Ivanychuk Lviv Regional Youth Library at: Lviv, Rynok Square, 9. The exhibition will run until 7 September.