"Never knew any friend who travelled there, no one recommended it and there was just one reason for going - it felt like she should." This is how Avantika Meattle describes her visit to Ukraine in January, just a month before Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the "country with a flag that is about its sunflowers on the ground and a blue sky above".
When Meattle, a leading photographer with a practice spanning 20 years across multiple genres, visited a freezing Ukraine, Omicron was ravaging most of the world and a Russian army was already sending out belligerent vibrations at the border. But Meattle was mesmerised by the vibrant country with its illustrious history, imposing monuments, the people, food and culture - a heady mix of Nordic, European, Russian and Ottoman history.
Recently, she collected her photo documents into a three-day exhibition, ‘Ukraine Untold Glimpses as a Travelling Photographer’, which was inaugurated by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor in New Delhi in the presence of SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh - the airliner had helped evacuate Indian citizens from war-torn Ukraine.
Presented here are snapshots of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, a shimmering, majestic city now battered and bruised for years to come.