A vehicle catches fire while two soldiers examine the scene after an attack in Ukraine.
As Russian bombs were striking targets across Ukraine and with the war in its infancy in early 2022, Serhii Korovayny G’21 could think of only one way to help his country: he picked up his camera and started documenting the struggles his fellow Ukrainians were facing as unwanted invaders threatened their way of life.
While Korovayny’s lens captured the suffering that is prevalent during times of war— such as a drone attack toppling a building and bloodied residents fleeing—it also recorded the moments of humanity, times when strangers came together to offer a helping hand to a neighbor in need.
Through it all, Korovayny, an award-winning editorial and portrait photographer based in Kyiv, leaned on an adage he learned during his time at Syracuse University from Bruce Strong, the Alexia Endowed Chair of the visual communications department in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Serhii Korovayny G’21.
“You have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Korovayny says of the advice that guided him.
“It’s such a simple and powerful phrase. I have to approach people who are probably suffering or trying to get access to medical care, and there have been so many times where I’ve found myself feeling super uncomfortable documenting the war. But this little phrase is about me accepting that this is part of my job, and I have no other choice but to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” adds Korovayny, who earned a master’s degree in multimedia, photography and design.
While the bombs that exploded outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2022, signaled a new chapter in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, for Korovayny and his family, the war started in 2014, when Russian forces occupied Korovayny’s hometown in Eastern Ukraine.
As the bombings began anew, Korovayny says his parents, like many Ukrainians, grew accustomed to the sound of artillery fire, rocket attacks and aerial assaults on their cities. But the attacks that ripped through Kyiv that day hit closer to home, as Korovayny’s wife, Daria Vilkova, was living in Kyiv when the war started.
Seeking refuge, Korovayny drove his wife, along with a few of their friends and several dogs and cats, to safety in the city of Lviv, in the western part of the country near the border with Poland. Once he felt reassured that they were out of harm’s way, Korovayny returned to Kyiv to photograph the battle scenes.
A few months after the war started, Korovayny was reunited with his wife. He has been impressed by the resiliency displayed by his fellow Ukrainians.
A woman holds a child while lighting a candle in a Ukrainian church.
“Everyone has really just gotten used to life during war. In the first days it was really scary, but these days, with the Russians attacks intensifying between their drone strikes and rocket launches, we’ve grown used to everything. We’ll go to a shelter if there’s an attack, but we’re not freaking out. The same goes for my work. At the beginning, I was really afraid to be on the front lines, but now I’m used to it,” says Korovayny, whose photography has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Financial Times, Politico and more.
Mourners pay their respects during a ceremony in Ukraine.
As the war rages on, there’s another battle being waged utilizing Korovayny’s skills as a talented photographer and visual storyteller: A war on misinformation.
Ensuring that the rest of the world could witness the atrocities of war in his homeland was one of the biggest factors that motivated Korovayny to become a wartime photographer. Knowing that Russian President Vladimir Putin was intent on portraying the Ukrainians as the aggressors, Korovayny’s photos depicting the battle scenes served as valuable evidence to the contrary.
Especially as his riveting pictures were picked up by global news outlets.
A woman is rescued from a building by Ukrainian soldiers.
“After the Russians retreated from the north, I went there for the first time to visit the territories they previously occupied, and I just couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so ugly, and there were so many cruel things the Russian soldiers did to the Ukrainian civilians they occupied. I saw bodies of regular citizens, bodies of dogs, burned down houses. It was just a mess. It was really hard emotionally, but I was motivated to continue doing this, to show these horrible acts to people around the world. What I’m doing is important in the war on misinformation,” says Korovayny.
Knowing he might be approaching his fellow Ukrainians on one of the worst days of their lives, Korovayny approaches every situation with empathy and compassion.
“It’s important to just be respectful to these people and remember that it’s a balancing act between getting the photos you need for the job and being respectful of these human beings who are really suffering. I always try to spend time and listen to them, to let them tell their story so they don’t feel like I used them to get my pictures,” says Korovayny, whose work covering the war earned him the 2022 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting.
By this point, you might be wondering how Korovayny, an accomplished photographer, wound up at Syracuse University.
A recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Korovayny was searching for a top photojournalism and visual storytelling program for a master’s degree when he came across the Newhouse School. He became enamored with the program’s multimedia focus, its hands-on experiences and its world-class faculty, like Strong and Mike Davis, formerly The Alexia Endowed Chair at the Newhouse School and professor emeritus of visual communications. Davis emphasized the important role editing can play for a photographer, and the lesson stuck with Korovayny.
“I got lucky I wound up at Syracuse University. It was the best thing that could have happened. It was such a great program with everything I wanted. I really miss my time in Syracuse. There was so much possibility, and I was able to develop my skills while living in such a beautiful part of the country,” Korovayny says with pride.
Ukrainian citizens waiting for aid after an attack on their city in Ukraine.
As the conflict in Ukraine approaches the 18-month mark, Korovayny looks forward to the day his beautiful homeland is able to escape the ravages of war and return to its peaceful, serene ways.
“I really love this country. With my photography, I’m always looking for signs of humanity, and I see it everywhere. Hopefully one day soon Ukraine can go back to normal. There’s so much beauty that is covered up by war,” Korovayny says.
