Women in Motion: Between Two Worlds
This project grew out of encounters – out of conversations, looks and moments that stayed with me.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, I have repeatedly met women who were forced to leave their homeland and are now trying to build a new life in Germany. I wanted to give them more than a face. I wanted to create space for their stories.
This is how Women in Motion: Between Two Worlds came into being.
At the centre of the project are around 20 Ukrainian women with very different life stories, professions, experiences and personalities. Some were teachers, accountants, entrepreneurs or skilled professionals; others worked in completely different fields. Each of them had her own life, a familiar everyday routine, plans and people who were important to her.
The war interrupted these lives.
Many had to make decisions within a very short time that nobody would ever choose voluntarily: leaving their homes, leaving loved ones behind, protecting their children and starting again in a foreign country. Some were able to continue their professional careers, while others had to completely change direction. Yet despite all their differences, they share something: the movement between what has been lost and what is yet to be built.
Between Two Worlds
“Between Two Worlds” does not describe only a geographical place.
It is an inner state. Today, one lives in Germany, works, learns the language, raises children, makes new friends and tries to build a new everyday life and future. At the same time, part of one’s life remains in Ukraine – with family, in a former home, in memories and in the hope of returning.
I wanted to make this tension visible.
Not as a dramatic depiction of flight, but as an honest look at women who, despite loss and uncertainty, continue to live, work, learn, create and take responsibility.
Not first and foremost as refugees, but as people.
As women with skills, experience, dignity and the ability to make their own decisions. As people who do not only need support, but who are already part of society and actively shape it through their work, knowledge, commitment and culture.
Three Images – Three Perspectives
Each woman was presented through three photographs.
An emotional portrait shows her personality and individual expression. Another photograph takes us back to her professional or personal life in Ukraine. The third shows her present-day reality in Germany.
Some photographs are documentary, while others were developed together with the women. For some images, professional situations from their former lives in Ukraine were recreated. Others were taken directly at their current workplaces in Germany.
Authenticity was particularly important to me. I did not want to create roles, but to show people as they are in their lives – with their strength, uncertainty, abilities and emotions.
The portraits were deliberately photographed in black and white. Without the distraction of colour, the focus is directed towards the face, the eyes and the expression – towards what a person can tell without using words.
The photographs are accompanied by personal texts and interviews. They tell stories of homes that were lost and professions that were left behind, of new workplaces, language barriers, loneliness, family, friendship, hope and the attempt to find one’s own place in life again.
A Project About Encounter
The exhibition was not intended to stop at simply looking at photographs.
It invited visitors to take their time, to listen and to recognise a life story behind every face. Perhaps one of these stories would evoke something familiar: a loss, a new beginning, a fear, a hope or the desire to feel at home somewhere again.
The women’s stories are personal, but at the same time they reflect a broader social reality.
They raise questions about integration, identity, belonging and visibility. Integration is not a one-sided task. It develops when people reach out to one another, when spaces are opened and when abilities and experiences are recognised.
These women live among us today. They work, study, raise families, get involved in their communities and build new lives. At the same time, many of them continue to carry their former world within them.
Between two worlds, something new emerges.
The Exhibition
The exhibition comprised around 60 photographs and was first presented at Galerie Agon Kulturwerk in Passau. Alongside the photographs, there were personal texts, QR audio recordings and accompanying events that created space for encounters and exchange.
From the beginning, the exhibition was intended to be more than a presentation of photographs. It was meant to be a living place – a place where people could meet and talk, and where Ukrainian culture, stories and personal experiences could become visible.
For me, this project is not yet complete.
The stories of these women are part of our present and deserve to be preserved, heard and carried forward. That is why the project will continue to live online and grow through further photographic work.
The People Behind the Project
A project like this is never created alone.
My special thanks go to all the women who gave me their trust and allowed themselves to become part of this very personal work. It was a special experience to work with each of them, to learn their stories and to find the right moments for the photographs together.
I would also like to express my special thanks to Yaroslava Onufrik, a Ukrainian journalist and media professional who supported me with part of the interviews. Through her journalistic experience and her conversations with the women, additional personal stories emerged and enriched the project in terms of content.
Her contribution was an important part of creating this part of the project. The interviews were conducted exclusively within the framework of Women in Motion: Between Two Worlds and are part of this photographic project.
My thanks also go to everyone who provided spaces, helped with the photography, made contacts possible, supported the exhibition or simply believed in this project.
And above all, my thanks go to the women themselves.
They gave me more than their photographs.
They gave me their time, their memories, their vulnerability and their trust.
For that, I am deeply grateful.
How the Project Will Continue
For me, this project is not yet complete.
The first exhibition was an important first chapter of Women in Motion: Between Two Worlds. It showed me how many different life stories exist behind the faces of Ukrainian women living in Germany – and how many stories have yet to be told.
That is why I would like to continue the project and portray more Ukrainian women in the future. Not simply to make the existing series larger, but to make visible further life journeys that are just as individual and diverse.
Every woman brings her own story: a profession she had in Ukraine, a path of change, personal losses, new experiences, skills, hopes and ideas about the future. Some have quickly found a new place for themselves in Germany, while others are still searching. Some hope to return, while others do not yet know where their future home will be.
It is precisely this diversity that I want to document.
I want to record how the lives of Ukrainian women in Germany develop – not only at the moment of arrival, but over time. Integration, starting again and searching for a new sense of home are not single events, but processes that continue to change.
The new portraits will therefore build on the original idea of the project while adding new perspectives. In this way, the first exhibition can gradually develop into a longer-term photographic document of Ukrainian women living in Germany.
The stories of these women are part of our present and deserve to be preserved, heard and carried forward. That is why the project will continue to live digitally and grow through further photographic work.
