Picture description: The Beginning, Kiev, Ukraine, Winter 2013

Series description: “On the night of Friday, 29 November 2013, Ukrainian police forces Berkut broke up a peaceful demonstration against the regime of president Viktor Yanukovych. The police attack came unexpectedly in the early hours of the morning, the hour of the wolf, as Ukrainians say. The police intervened with an exceptional brutality. The wounded tried to hide behind the thick walls of the Michailov orthodox monastery, near the square where the provisional infirmary was set up. People believed that the police wouldn’t dare step on a religious property. According to an unofficial information, the man in the photograph is the first wounded person in the long-drawn-out Ukrainian crises. The brutally dispersed peaceful demonstration arouse high emotions, and in the following days, around half a million people came out on the streets. The Ukrainian crises started in earnest.” International jury statement: “The photograph shows the most important current European conflict. The personal pain of the unknown man touches us all. The man in the picture seems to be crying blood while the rows of saints look on in silence. We regard this photograph with multiple meaning as a metaphor for the human suffering in military conflicts.”

Author: Filip Singer