Generation of War 2024 – Ongoing
Across Ukraine, national-patriotic education camps have quietly become part of the everyday landscape of adolescence.
In these official and volunteer-run spaces, military training, civic education, and collective rituals merge into a single rhythm. Teenagers learn how to handle weapons, move in formation, put on gas masks, and endure physical strain—often in the same places where they laugh, rest, and play.
These are places where childhood and war exist side by side.
Growing up in Ukraine means learning how to live in a state of permanent alert. Readiness becomes part of the body before it becomes a choice. This series examines how war reshapes childhood not only through loss and trauma but also through routine, repetition, and embodied knowledge. Through gestures and details, it traces a generation whose coming of age unfolds alongside an ongoing conflict.
The photographs observe a quiet transformation: the gradual normalisation of military language in teenage life and the early absorption of responsibility, discipline, and collective duty.
Patriotism here is not declared—it is practised. It is learned through touch and fatigue, through proximity to others, and through the slow accumulation of drills that begin to resemble everyday life.
About Mykhaylo Palinchak
Mykhaylo Palinchak is an independent Ukrainian documentary and street photographer. Born in January 1985 in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, he currently lives and works in Kyiv. He holds a master’s degree in International Economics from the Institute of International Relations at Kyiv National University.
Palinchak has been practising photography since 2008. He joined the Ukrainian Photographic Alternative (UPHA) in 2012 and became a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP) in 2014. From 2014 to 2019, he served as an official photographer to the President of Ukraine.
He is the founder of Untitled magazine and co-founder of the Ukrainian Street Photography group. Since 2022, he has also been a member of PEN Ukraine.
Palinchak is the author of the photobook Anamnesis (2020) and the art book Maidan Faces (2020). His photographic prints are held in private collections and the permanent collections of photography museums. [Official Website]
