In the Latvian capital, Riga, the photo exhibition “Ukraine’s DNA. 100 Days on the Road” has opened. Throughout its run, a charity fundraising campaign will be held in support of the UNBROKEN centre in Lviv, which helps people affected by Russian aggression.
The author of the exhibition is Latvian journalist and traveller Jānis Grandāns, who has travelled across Ukraine many times over several years. In total, he has spent more than 100 days in the country, covering thousands of kilometres and visiting both major cities and small settlements.
The photographs feature Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Kamianets-Podilskyi, the Carpathians and Zakarpattia. Alongside well-known architectural landmarks and landscapes, the images capture scenes from the everyday life of Ukrainians: local markets, traditional dishes, train journeys, village houses, streets and chance encounters with people.
“These photographs are our Ukraine. Not the Ukraine from a tourist brochure and not a country that can be summed up in a few news headlines, but the Ukraine we came to know by returning again and again, travelling thousands of kilometres and meeting people. It is the people, the conversations, everyday life, markets, roads, mountains, cities and the smallest moments that made us fall in love with this country. With this exhibition, we want to share at least a part of these feelings with the people of Riga,” — Jānis Grandāns
The exhibition has been curated as a coherent story of journeys across Ukraine. Some of the photographs are accompanied by QR codes, which visitors can scan to read extended stories and view additional images. The visual concept of the exhibition was developed by Ukrainian artist Maria Zenkova, who was born in Kyiv and has lived and worked in Latvia since 2022.
An important component of the project is its charitable initiative: together with the Latvian platform Ziedot.lv, the organisers are collecting donations for the UNBROKEN centre in Lviv. According to Jānis Grandāns, the team wanted visitors not only to see Ukraine in the photographs, but also to have an easy way to contribute to supporting Ukrainians.
The author of the exhibition has previously organised charity initiatives in support of Ukraine. In particular, in August 2025 he and his son cycled around 1,600 kilometres from Riga to Odesa, raising funds to equip underground classrooms in one of Odesa’s lyceums.
The opening ceremony of the photo exhibition was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Baiba Braže, diplomats from the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia, and representatives of charitable organisations and the Ukrainian community.
The exhibition will run from 14 October 2026 to 14 January 2027 in the open-air photo gallery next to the Origo shopping centre in Riga (Stacijas laukums, 4). The project is being implemented with the participation of the Origo shopping centre, “Četri ceļo gardi”, Destination Ukraine and the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia.