A displaced people

A Displaced People is a modern photographic project looking into the on-going conflict caused by 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The project uses found imagery and AI technology to create scenes of war that simultaneously happened and did not; the use of AI here helping to fill in gaps of representation and memory, while also rupturing the veracity of the image altogether.

In a society saturated with information, it’s possible to live through events in a deeply intimate way, without ever experiencing them first-hand. By gathering images and research from global news outlets, protests, and the social media accounts of those on the ground, A Displaced People looks to explore what war looks and feels like in the post-truth, interconnected age.                                                                                             

AI has been used to expand existing images of war here to explore the machines’ understanding of what war is and what it looks like in a modern world. Having previously been used to create propaganda and false imagery, A Displaced People seeks to reapproach this new technology as a means of understanding that which has been-ish. 

The project is split into five subthemes; “frontlines” looking into how the combat is being fought in different ways; “the home front” and how the home front has changed as the people adapt to living in the remanence of what was the one place they called home; “Being united” as this came to me for witnessing the passion that the Ukrainian people have for there when I went to the protests; “after effects”, looking into the effects the war will have on not only the soldiers but also many millions of people who have had flee the country; and finally the last theme I wanted to look into is “displaced people”, this term was first heard when I did an interview for this project when I was talking about the refugee crisis that has emerged from this war where the term ‘displaced people’ was used which I found was a much more suitable word for them as 8.1 million Ukrainians have been displaced from there homes.