UKRAINE 2022-2024
Diary of an Aid Worker
Photos & Text by Mark Neville
When war escalated two years ago, on February 24, 2022, Mark Neville decided not only to stay in his adopted home of Kyiv, but also to set up a charity, Postcode Ukraine, with which he has been making deliveries of humanitarian aid to frontline towns for the same two years.
Through more than 100 previously unpublished photographs made during these dangerous aid trips, Neville’s diary gives us a unique, unsettling yet stunningly beautiful insight into life in Ukraine. Exploring themes of commitment, home, loss, resilience, the power of children, women and motherhood, and our relation to the land, Neville’s new project highlights the importance of charity work and mental health support for a traumatised nation.
Along with being a beautiful photo book and an essential testimony, this book is at once a call to action for the West, a meditation on trauma, a tool kit of vital information for the Ukrainian audience about where to access support, and a reconfiguration of the roles both of the photo book and the photographer.
Listen to Mark Neville presenting the project behind Diary of an Aid Worker in this 2 minute vidéo.
THE BOOK
Ukraine 2022- 2024: Diary of an Aid Worker will feature photographs taken during the past two years in Ukraine, in both black and white and colour, all shot using either medium or large format film cameras. The book has been designed by the acclaimed Ania Nałęcka-Milach, who also co-edited with Mark.
One thousand copies will be disseminated for free throughout Ukraine by the charity Postcode Ukraine to schools, military families, doctor’s clinics, army bases, and churches in the hope that it will encourage more Ukrainians to come forward and receive mental health support.
One thousand further complimentary copies of this book are being disseminated to politicians, key policymakers, and government leaders throughout America and Europe to call for further support of the Ukrainian people, particularly regarding mental health.
MARK NEVILLE
British-born, Kyiv-based artist Mark Neville makes work at the intersection of art and documentary. He creates films, photographs, and books that he often disseminates for free to a target audience to have an impact on social issues.
In 2020, he sent out 750 complimentary copies of his last book Stop Tanks With Books before the full-blown invasion began, to a target audience of diplomats, politicians, the super-rich, celebrities, and NATO and EU members – as a call to action. The concept was to weaponise the medium of the photo book with two main aims. The first was to garner international support for Ukraine in its continuing fight for independence, help end Russian aggression in Donbas, and call for the withdrawal of Russia from Crimea. Second was to counteract the wealth of fake news and racist disinformation the Kremlin was generating – material that Western media was often perpetuating and reproducing unchallenged and unchecked – by presenting real portraits of Ukrainians.
Neville has lived in Kyiv since 2020, where he co-founded and now runs the hybrid humanitarian aid and photography project Postcode Ukraine.
You can follow his work on Instagram: @marknevillestudio
Also, his website is GREAT! www.markneville.com
EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS
Mark’s work can be found in many museum and private collections, and he has exhibited extensively in venues including
• The Victoria & Albert Museum (UK)
• Tate Britain (UK)
• The Andy Warhol Museum (USA)
• The Photographers’ Gallery (UK)
• The Imperial War Museum (UK)
• Haus Der Kunst (Germany)
• Musée du Jeu de Paume (France).
Mark Neville’s book projects have been repeatedly nominated for major awards. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (2013), the Aperture Photo Book Award (2017), the Time Magazine Photo Book Award (2017), and The Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize (2020). Stop Tanks With Books was nominated for both the Arles Photo Book Award and the Paris Photo Book Award in 2022.
DATA SHEET
• 280 pages
• Black & white and colours photos & Text by Mark Neville
• Hardcover
• Size : 245 x 335 mm / 9.6 x 13.2 inches
The book will be available in two bilingual versions :
• English & Ukrainian
ISBN 978-2-38289-126-1
• French & English
ISBN 978-2-38289-127-8
We plan to ship it during the summer 2024.
Price: €49 during the preorder period, €59 afterwards
THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
Our goal is to encourage international audiences to re-engage with Ukraine and to finance the printing of 1000 books which we intend to distribute for free to schools, churches, military bases, hospitals and psychiatric clinics in Ukraine, encouraging people who are suffering to come forward and receive mental health support.
The plan is also for the charity Postcode Ukraine to send another 1000 books to politicians throughout the US and Europe as Mark previously did with his former book Stop Tanks with Books.
Every partner involved in this project has chosen to work at minimal cost. This includes Mark Neville, the team at Editions Caurette, and Istanbul based printer MAS Matbaa, run by Ufuk Sahin, a long time specialist in printing high quality photo books
Please note that any orders placed before the book is officially available will receive a bonus set of 5 exclusive postcards.
Shipping will take place in Summer 2024.
POSTCODE UKRAINE (to go a bit further…)
Mark’s charity Postcode Ukraine is collaborating on rehabilitation projects for the young, such as offering children from frontline towns the otherwise impossible chance to escape the explosions and retreat to safe spaces in Ukraine and access therapy.
Its mission is also to deliver free humanitarian aid to those most in need in Ukraine, directly and collaboratively with regional charities. An important topic is to communicate the reality of life inside Ukraine’s war, to create understanding and empathy, garner support and raise global awareness.
You can find out more about Postcode Ukraine on www.postcodeukraine.com
“All of us in the West are engaged in a war already, whether we accept it or not, with an enemy we cannot negotiate with and who will not stop at Ukraine. By saving Ukraine we save the world and our children.”
Press talking about Ukraine 20224-2024: Diary of an Aid Worker
02/03/2024 – DE STANDAARD – “Zo help je Oekraïne”
