Ukrainian artist and documentary photographer Alena Grom was born in Donetsk. In April 2014 she was forced to leave her hometown due to military events in Eastern Ukraine. Since 2017 she has lived in Bucha, a town outside of Kyiv.  As a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, Alena and her family became refugees for the second time, but returned after the de-occupation of Bucha. These events significantly affected her artistic practice. Photography became a salvation and a way to deal with the traumatic reality of war. Since 2016, Alena Grom’s work has focused on places affected by military aggression. Her lens captures victims of the war, migrants and refugees, and war-torn Ukraine at large. However, her photographs are not illustrations of pity or grief. Life in spite of everything is one of the main themes of the artist. Alena Grom’s projects have been exhibited extensively in Ukraine and internationally and recognised by a number of international photography awards including: LensCulture Portrait Awards 2023/ Finalist; 2022 Tokyo International Foto Awards / Prize Gold ; International Photography Awards “Best of Show 2022” by this year’s curator; Prix de la Photographie, Paris (PX3).