Viktoria Sorochinksi | Poltavaland: Ukraine’s Place of Power (2019-2021)
February 26, 2026
Viktoria Sorochinski’s photographs channel the inner spirit of Poltava. The creatives who inhabit the region are shown in their idiosyncrasies, not as numbers, as we may have grown accustomed to in recent reporting on Ukraine. Sorochinski’s photographs show the irreplaceable value and substance of individual lives.
A priest sits near a bookshelf in a simple room. He has been reviving an ancient Orthodox church in town, and rejuvenating the life within its walls. His expression is alive with a flame of insight or recognition. The photograph feels like an encounter, in a way that not all portraits do.
A man sits in his kitchen in a reflective mood; he is there, but his mind seems elsewhere. In the exhibition, this portrait is placed next to a whimsical landscape. As you look down into a pond, you find yourself gazing up into a sky, where paper boats sail through a sea of clouds. The ships echo an arrangement of pots on the table. The landscape offers a spaciousness that could represent thoughts or an interior life, as the two pictures interact.
Poltava appears peaceful in the calm before the storm, but that perspective is tempered with the knowledge of the coming war. We can see the past and remember the present at the same time. Some of the image pairings in this particular show were chosen with that theme in mind.
A man lying on the ground is placed next to an image of a toy plane caught in the branches of a tree. In one reality, the man could be in a state of wonder and abandon, perhaps dreaming about flight. In the shadow of war, the plane becomes ominous, and the man’s posture in the grass suggests a darker form of sleep. As viewers, we can toggle between those two interpretations, one innocent, and the other burdened.
A similar experience can be had when looking at Sorochinksi’s image of an old map. It’s strange to realize that the borders illustrated within it are the source of violence and conflict. Lines that can look uncontroversial on paper are so much more complicated in real life. The map is deteriorating, with a gaping hole in its center, strangely similar to the gash in the land in the next photograph. This slash is an actual line in the ground that was fought over as empires battled to take Ukrainian lands. The battle of Poltava was waged here in 1709.
These images were made just a few years ago, but the place may already be quite different. In one of Sorochinski’s photographs, ghostly figures that emerge from a mural represent Ukraine’s fight for freedom over the centuries.
The mural is covered over now and no longer exists. But in the clarity and careful fidelity of Sorochinski’s image, the temporary work of art and its sentiment live on.
- Mia + Lisa
See more of Viktoria’s work HERE
