Odesa Photo Days is an international photo festival that, until Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, held exhibits every year. Having the festival in Ukraine is no longer possible because of the war, and so partners like Fotofestiwal Lodz have been found to keep the work going.

Radchenko’s interest in protest movements was sparked in 2020 when they sprang up all over the world during the coronavirus pandemic. As she told In Sight:

“Their themes, forms and goals varied widely, from political demands to economic changes, from lifting the lockdown to strengthening social control. Protests flared up here and there but were forcefully suppressed due to the pandemic. At the same time, a number of crucial sociopolitical changes occurred in many countries: Election fraud and large-scale protests in Belarus, adoption of new laws and strengthening of social control in Poland, escalation of the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] conflict in [Nagorno-]Karabakh, mass protests in Hong Kong — and this is only a fraction of the long list, just a few examples from the countries I researched. All of these events and movements had certain common characteristics, including the tightening of control over society, the introduction of dictatorial methods, and the insulation of the country’s internal politics along with control over the dissemination of information inside and outside the country. As someone born during the Soviet era, I was disturbed by these political changes in their entirety.

“I was also interested in the process of disseminating information about protest movements around the world and the specifics of communicating ‘from the inside out.’ I remember very well the time when riot police shot at peaceful protesters in Independence Square in Kyiv in 2014 and how helpless my colleagues and I felt as we gathered information and tried to disseminate it around the world, hoping that our voice would be heard. The feeling of not knowing what to hope for and begging the world to hear you is all too familiar to me. So when I saw news of the protests in Iran, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and elsewhere disappearing from the international media, I felt it was important to create an alternative platform to collect and preserve those voices. ‘The Transition State’ became that platform. This exhibition is a visual testament to lived experience, diary entries of political change, evidence of torture and violence, and an attempt to give voice to people in need of global support. The exhibition includes works by authors from Ukraine, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, including Valeriy Miloserdov, Maxim Dondyuk, Sasha Kurmaz, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Gulnara Kasmalieva, Muratbek Djumaliev, Timur Nusimbekov, Shailo Djekshenbaev, Erbossyn Meldibekov, Hossein Fatemi and 10 anonymous photographers from Middle East Images. The works, created between 1990 and 2022, visualize the duration of the fight.”

The world has always been in one form of turmoil or another. We can often become desensitized to the overwhelming amount of suffering that happens in the world on a daily basis. And with the proliferation of information 24 hours a day, seven days a week through cable news, newspapers and, perhaps most important, social media, it can be hard to keep our attention focused. That’s why exhibits like “The Transition State” are important. They help us to stop and pay attention in the midst of so much noise. That has always been an essential thing — perhaps now more than ever.

“The Transition State” runs through June 25 at the Fotofestiwal Lodz.

You can find more information about it here.