CHICAGO (WLS) — Tom Doody came back from a 10-day trip to Ukraine just one month ago.
Nothing about the journey was straightforward. After the rail lines were bombed just days before he was to travel, plans changed, forcing him to make the trip by bus from the border with Moldova. But for the self-taught photographer, it was all worth it, as he endeavored to capture what life in Ukraine’s capital city and its surrounding areas is like today.
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Five thousand miles away from Kyiv are the snow-covered streets of Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.
Doody spoke of his trip in his girlfriend’s art studio there.
“I’m not a war photographer. I don’t do bombs and trenches. I wanted to meet the people. I wanted to personally experience what they are going through and what it was like,” Doody said.
Scheduled blackouts and nightly air-raids were the expected part of what Doody encountered.
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“The juxtaposition of normalcy while living in a war-torn country. At night, there is nothing going on. About 8:30 or 9 a.m., people just teem out. And they’re going to work. They’re going to play; they’re going to school,” Doody said. “I wanted to capture shots of the moment in Kyiv and what was going on. With people I found myself being a lot more sensitive.”
He said he met an elderly woman in St. Michael’s Golden Dome Monastery, who was maintaining a candelabra of small candles for the fallen and the still fighting.
“Another was Freedom Square, which was covered in Ukrainian flags and patriotism. There is one area which is a field covered with thousands of photographs. There was a man who is kneeling and communing with a photograph, and he was just talking,” Doody said.
But while most of his time was spent in Kyiv, Doody also visited some of the surrounding areas, like Borodyanka, a town briefly occupied by the Russian Army.
“I went to visit the memorial for the fallen. Ludmilla had a broom. And she had survived the 30 some days of occupation, and all of these atrocities. Her contribution is she sweeps the graves,” Doody said.
A month later, back in Chicago, Doody’s message is simple.
“Save Ukraine. Support these people. I just hope the U.S. continues to support them in every way possible. Europe is behind them. To see Ukraine fall, I think would be devastating,” he said.
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