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Congrats, Alex 💕
I’m so happy for them, but as a hopelessly loyal Galex shipper, I'm dying 😂 Anyway, George is actually going to Alex’s wedding. Ahh, I love it… George’s best man pic is gonna give me a heart attack...
Alex please start a YouTube channel and upload your wedding vlog. Show Galex shippers some mercy and kill us.
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In Byron Smith’s new photography book, Ukrainians are pictured fleeing by any means possible — crammed into cars with pet dogs, waiting to board trains to Poland, or simply taking to suburban streets with infants and backpacks in hand.
As a photojournalist whose work often focuses on the plight of migrants (a mission that has taken him from Greek refugee camps to the battle for ISIS-controlled Mosul, Iraq, in 2016 and 2017), his instinct was quite the opposite: to run toward the danger.
“I feel like if you see these masses of people fleeing, it would be fake for me to really sympathize with them if I didn't go and see what they were fleeing from,” Smith told CNN in a video interview from Istanbul, Turkey.
Documenting Smith’s travels through Ukraine in the year following Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February 2022, “Testament ‘22 – A Visual Road Diary Through a War Zone” is a contemplative portrait of a nation at war.
The 192-page tome juxtaposes color with monochrome, defiance with despair, hope with fear.
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The title references “My Testament,” an 1845 poem by Taras Shevchenko in which the author asks to be buried among the fields, rivers and steppes of his “beloved Ukraine.”
The photographer recalled reading it as he first ventured to Kyiv.
“It's pretty much (Shevchenko’s) last will and testament... And I'm riding into this war zone, the Russians are invading and I’m like, ‘Wow, I actually don't have a will and testament for myself, for my parents or family, or even anything to really leave behind for anybody.’
That played on me a bit, and it became the backbone for the story.”
The book serves, too, as a testament to the people of Ukraine, whose stories Smith felt compelled to share with the world.
Its publisher, Verlag Kettler, believes the photographer’s body of work can contribute to the “overwhelming evidence” of Russian crimes.
xxx
Today i eat meat which shined a little bit green, and now my stomache hurts, if i die, @sevenhexagons should take over my blog, let it be gay...
Big Brown and the Gamblers -- My Testament
Taras Gregorovich Shevchenko
My Testament
When I am dead, bury me In my beloved Ukraine, My tomb upon a grave mound high Amid the spreading plain, So that the fields, the boundless steppes, The Dnieper's plunging shore My eyes could see, my ears could hear The mighty river roar.
When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears Into the deep blue sea The blood of foes … then will I leave These hills and fertile fields — I'll leave them all and fly away To the abode of God, And then I'll pray …. But till that day I nothing know of God.
Oh bury me, then rise ye up And break your heavy chains And water with the tyrants' blood The freedom you have gained. And in the great new family, The family of the free, With softly spoken, kindly word Remember also me.
For anon, hate how my voice sounds >.<
I lived with you, I grieved, and many a tear I shed. In truth, I never did a noble soul defy. Now it is time for me to go and join the dead. Seems like it’s joy I leave on earth – so sad am I.
...
But I beseech you – there is hope while there is breath. Do lead the nation with a wisdom’s torch held high, And one by one, if needed be, go straight to death, As God-hurled stones that densely over ramparts fly.
...
But after me remains, howe’er, the fateful force That, of no use in life, adorned my forehead tall; But it will press you when I die, without remorse, So that, bread-eaters, you become sheer angels all.
"Testament mój"- Juliusz Słowacki ( "My testament"- Juliusz Słowacki translated by Jarek Zawadzki)
"Kamienie na szaniec" - Robert Gliński (2014)
MI TESTAMENTO - KBZ
