{"id":1859451,"date":"2026-04-01T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1859451"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T11:35:00","slug":"these-photos-from-ukraine-capture-the-absurdity-of-life-in-wartime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1859451","title":{"rendered":"These photos from Ukraine capture the absurdity of life in wartime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/512-533-1724-1149\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442497.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/art-photography\/article\/70012\/1\/ukraine-photo-book-arie-shahrokhshahi-absurdity-of-life-in-wartime\" data-article-id=\"70012\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.25\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"2155\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442497.jpg\" width=\"2698\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Photography Aria Shahrokhshahi. Courtesy of <span class=\"nowrap\">Loose Joints.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-04-01T14:35:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"01 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"1\">1,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - art-photography\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/lightbox\">Lightbox<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/lightbox\">Lightbox<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>These photos from Ukraine capture the absurdity of life <span class=\"nowrap\">in wartime<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>Shot during his time as a volunteer on the front lines of the Ukraine war, Aria Shahrokhshahi\u2019s new book is an eerily beautiful depiction of a society <span class=\"nowrap\">under attack<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-04-01T14:35:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"01 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"1\">1,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-04-01T14:35:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"01 April 2026\"><span class=\"month\">April<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"1\">1,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/JamesGreig\">James Greig<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-24-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Aria Shahrokhshahi, <span class=\"nowrap\">Wet Ground<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/0\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1798\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-129-2698-1798\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442496.jpg\" width=\"2698\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/1\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1149\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/512-533-1724-1149\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442497.jpg\" width=\"1724\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/2\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1430\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2146-1430\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442498.jpg\" width=\"2146\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/3\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1430\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2146-1430\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442499.jpg\" width=\"2146\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/4\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1800\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2700-1800\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442500.jpg\" width=\"2700\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/5\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1801\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2702-1801\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442501.jpg\" width=\"2702\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 24 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>During the making of his new photo book <\/span><em><span><a href=\"https:\/\/loosejoints.biz\/products\/wet-ground\">Wet Ground<\/a>,<\/span><\/em><span> British-Iranian artist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ariamark\/?hl=en-gb\"><span>Aria Shahrokhshahi<\/span><\/a><span> visited a youth military training camp, just 30km away from the front line of the Ukrainian war. \u201cIn the evening, these young lads invited me out to this nightclub where they had dancing podiums and paid dancers. One of them got on the stage, took his jacket off and had a t-shirt that said, \u2018big dick is back in town\u2019. For Shahrokhshahi,<\/span><span>\u00a0this moment captured the sense of absurdity that often arises during wartime. \u201c30km away is nothing. You&#8217;re in range of serious death at that point. It\u2019s just that feeling of: what the <\/span><em><span>fuck <\/span><\/em><span>is going on?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>Wet Ground <\/span><\/em><span>is a collection of photographs taken between 2019 and the present, during which time Shahrokhshahi has spent extensive periods visiting Ukraine and, following the outbreak of the war, working as a humanitarian volunteer. He<\/span><span> first visited the country when he was living in Berlin, drawn by its thriving party culture and tattoo scene (many of his friends were tattoo artists). In the years after the 2014 uprising, which led to a change in government, the country was \u201cfinding a new identity and really having its moment\u201d. He says, \u201cI went there, made a bunch of friends and totally fell in love with it. I was really fascinated by this new cultural wave that was taking place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He returned as a volunteer after Russia invaded in February 2022, which involved evacuating civilians from the front line, rebuilding houses, helping to run art camps and working with children. The title refers to an incident where he survived a drone strike while carrying out an evacuation of civilians from a front-line town, where wet ground \u2013 in the literal sense \u2013 prevented a missile from detonating. A colleague, in the car with him at the time, lost several limbs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"2c471541-31c6-464f-bcc1-b41801160735\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442514.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.25\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"2155\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442514.jpg\" width=\"2698\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Loose <span class=\"nowrap\">Joints Publishing<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>While much of the book was completed in the years since the conflict began, Shahrokhshahi <\/span><span>doesn\u2019t see it as a work of war photography. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t interest me \u2013 a lot of it anyway. Obviously, there are amazing war photographers like Tim Hetherington, but for me, his pictures aren\u2019t really about war either: they\u2019re about connection and love and family and loss,\u201d he says. The conflict is a presence in many of these photographs \u2013 a shot of a pair of bloody knees, for example, evokes a sense of creeping violence; another depicts a bored-looking man scrolling through his phone beneath a wall of mounted guns &#8211; but it is rarely the direct subject. <\/span><span>Shahrokhshahi<\/span><span> is interested more in the duality of life in wartime, the moments of absurdity, like finding yourself at a conflict zone and an orgy within the same day; the \u201cbeauty in the everyday that exists within the chaos\u201d and \u201cwhat happens to a society when its existence is threatened\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><em>Wet Grounds<\/em> is his first project in black-and-white, a highly effective creative decision borne out of financial necessity. \u201cWhen I started this, I was pretty broke, to be honest,\u201d he says, and the cost of colour film had spiked at the time. Shooting with a large-format camera, a colour shot would have cost around \u00a310 and a black-and-white shot just eighty pence, making the decision an \u201cabsolute no-brainer\u201d. He used a flash in order to evoke newspaper photography and to create the sense of &#8220;examining things in an almost clinical manner\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"a2cb63c7-b1b5-44da-9bc8-b41801160a30\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442515.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.25\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"2154\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442515.jpg\" width=\"2702\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Loose <span class=\"nowrap\">Joints Publishing<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In this respect, one of his inspirations was <\/span><em><span>Evidence<\/span><\/em><span> (1977), a book by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, which consists of photography pulled from military and police archives, <\/span><span> repurposing images which, in their original form, were purely about conveying information and acting as documentation. <\/span><span>At the same time, there is an eerie, dream-like quality to many of his images: one shot, depicting a line of figures in white dresses and floral wreaths holding hands as they move through a dark forest, is both idyllic and sinister, like <\/span><em><span>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/span><\/em><span> crossed with <\/span><em><span>The Wicker Man.<\/span><\/em><span> \u201cIf you took a poem, and then you took newspaper photography, and they had sex, then hopefully the baby would be what I\u2019ve been attempting to do with this work,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During his time in Ukraine, Shahrokhshahi<\/span><span> realised that simply taking photographs and spreading awareness about what was happening \u201cjust wasn\u2019t good enough\u201d. Alongside his work as a humanitarian volunteer,\u00a0 he launched a series of magazines, <\/span><em><span>The Sketchbook Series,<\/span><\/em><span> which has so far raised around \u00a340,000 for NGOs he works with. \u201cThat\u2019s incredibly important to me, because I&#8217;ve been welcomed into that country with open arms. It\u2019s just not right, in my opinion, to go somewhere and just <\/span><em><span>take <\/span><\/em><span>because, especially with photography, you are taking something from someone. They\u2019re giving you a picture, they\u2019re giving you that time. And I think every artist has a social and moral responsibility to use their work for good.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Wet Ground <em>is published by Loose Joints and <a href=\"https:\/\/loosejoints.biz\/products\/wet-ground\">available to purchase here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. 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decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Of Streams and Lighthouses, and In Between\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-2-3000-1995\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442561.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">This photo series depicts youth culture in summer along the Danube<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69987\/1\/circulations-festival-paris-emerging-photographers-interview-highlights\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"T2i &amp; NouN, manman dilo\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-690-1999-1330\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442547.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">5 emerging photographers to watch from Circulation(s) in Paris<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69978\/1\/join-liz-johnson-artur-brixton-black-balloon-archive-london-black-culture\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"liz johnson artur\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/25-38-1151-766\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442394.png\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Liz Johnson Artur is inviting you into her studio<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69965\/1\/barbara-kruger-dazed-spring-2026-issue-interview-artist-supreme-imagination\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"DC291_CB2_BarbaraKruger_Archive_03\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/30-117-848-564\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442326.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Barbara Kruger: \u2018Never be shocked. Shock is a failure of imagination\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-24-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Aria Shahrokhshahi, <span class=\"nowrap\">Wet Ground<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/0\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1798\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-129-2698-1798\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442496.jpg\" width=\"2698\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/1\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1149\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/512-533-1724-1149\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442497.jpg\" width=\"1724\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/2\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1430\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2146-1430\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442498.jpg\" width=\"2146\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/3\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1430\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2146-1430\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442499.jpg\" width=\"2146\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/4\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1800\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2700-1800\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442500.jpg\" width=\"2700\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36887\/5\/aria-shahrokhshahi-wet-ground\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi, Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"1801\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2702-1801\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442501.jpg\" width=\"2702\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 24 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>During the making of his new photo book <\/span><em><span><a href=\"https:\/\/loosejoints.biz\/products\/wet-ground\">Wet Ground<\/a>,<\/span><\/em><span> British-Iranian artist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ariamark\/?hl=en-gb\"><span>Aria Shahrokhshahi<\/span><\/a><span> visited a youth military training camp, just 30km away from the front line of the Ukrainian war. \u201cIn the evening, these young lads invited me out to this nightclub where they had dancing podiums and paid dancers. One of them got on the stage, took his jacket off and had a t-shirt that said, \u2018big dick is back in town\u2019. For Shahrokhshahi,<\/span><span>\u00a0this moment captured the sense of absurdity that often arises during wartime. \u201c30km away is nothing. You&#8217;re in range of serious death at that point. It\u2019s just that feeling of: what the <\/span><em><span>fuck <\/span><\/em><span>is going on?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>Wet Ground <\/span><\/em><span>is a collection of photographs taken between 2019 and the present, during which time Shahrokhshahi has spent extensive periods visiting Ukraine and, following the outbreak of the war, working as a humanitarian volunteer. He<\/span><span> first visited the country when he was living in Berlin, drawn by its thriving party culture and tattoo scene (many of his friends were tattoo artists). In the years after the 2014 uprising, which led to a change in government, the country was \u201cfinding a new identity and really having its moment\u201d. He says, \u201cI went there, made a bunch of friends and totally fell in love with it. I was really fascinated by this new cultural wave that was taking place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He returned as a volunteer after Russia invaded in February 2022, which involved evacuating civilians from the front line, rebuilding houses, helping to run art camps and working with children. The title refers to an incident where he survived a drone strike while carrying out an evacuation of civilians from a front-line town, where wet ground \u2013 in the literal sense \u2013 prevented a missile from detonating. A colleague, in the car with him at the time, lost several limbs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"2c471541-31c6-464f-bcc1-b41801160735\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442514.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.25\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"2155\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442514.jpg\" width=\"2698\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Loose <span class=\"nowrap\">Joints Publishing<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>While much of the book was completed in the years since the conflict began, Shahrokhshahi <\/span><span>doesn\u2019t see it as a work of war photography. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t interest me \u2013 a lot of it anyway. Obviously, there are amazing war photographers like Tim Hetherington, but for me, his pictures aren\u2019t really about war either: they\u2019re about connection and love and family and loss,\u201d he says. The conflict is a presence in many of these photographs \u2013 a shot of a pair of bloody knees, for example, evokes a sense of creeping violence; another depicts a bored-looking man scrolling through his phone beneath a wall of mounted guns &#8211; but it is rarely the direct subject. <\/span><span>Shahrokhshahi<\/span><span> is interested more in the duality of life in wartime, the moments of absurdity, like finding yourself at a conflict zone and an orgy within the same day; the \u201cbeauty in the everyday that exists within the chaos\u201d and \u201cwhat happens to a society when its existence is threatened\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><em>Wet Grounds<\/em> is his first project in black-and-white, a highly effective creative decision borne out of financial necessity. \u201cWhen I started this, I was pretty broke, to be honest,\u201d he says, and the cost of colour film had spiked at the time. Shooting with a large-format camera, a colour shot would have cost around \u00a310 and a black-and-white shot just eighty pence, making the decision an \u201cabsolute no-brainer\u201d. He used a flash in order to evoke newspaper photography and to create the sense of &#8220;examining things in an almost clinical manner\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"a2cb63c7-b1b5-44da-9bc8-b41801160a30\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442515.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.25\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Wet Ground\" class=\"img\" height=\"2154\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442515.jpg\" width=\"2702\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Aria Shahrokhshahi \/ Loose <span class=\"nowrap\">Joints Publishing<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In this respect, one of his inspirations was <\/span><em><span>Evidence<\/span><\/em><span> (1977), a book by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, which consists of photography pulled from military and police archives, <\/span><span> repurposing images which, in their original form, were purely about conveying information and acting as documentation. <\/span><span>At the same time, there is an eerie, dream-like quality to many of his images: one shot, depicting a line of figures in white dresses and floral wreaths holding hands as they move through a dark forest, is both idyllic and sinister, like <\/span><em><span>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/span><\/em><span> crossed with <\/span><em><span>The Wicker Man.<\/span><\/em><span> \u201cIf you took a poem, and then you took newspaper photography, and they had sex, then hopefully the baby would be what I\u2019ve been attempting to do with this work,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During his time in Ukraine, Shahrokhshahi<\/span><span> realised that simply taking photographs and spreading awareness about what was happening \u201cjust wasn\u2019t good enough\u201d. Alongside his work as a humanitarian volunteer,\u00a0 he launched a series of magazines, <\/span><em><span>The Sketchbook Series,<\/span><\/em><span> which has so far raised around \u00a340,000 for NGOs he works with. \u201cThat\u2019s incredibly important to me, because I&#8217;ve been welcomed into that country with open arms. It\u2019s just not right, in my opinion, to go somewhere and just <\/span><em><span>take <\/span><\/em><span>because, especially with photography, you are taking something from someone. They\u2019re giving you a picture, they\u2019re giving you that time. And I think every artist has a social and moral responsibility to use their work for good.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Wet Ground <em>is published by Loose Joints and <a href=\"https:\/\/loosejoints.biz\/products\/wet-ground\">available to purchase here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/70012\/1\/ukraine-photo-book-arie-shahrokhshahi-absurdity-of-life-in-wartime&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/512-533-1724-1149\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/2\/1442497.jpg&#8221;] Photography Aria Shahrokhshahi. Courtesy of Loose Joints. April\u00a0 1,\u00a0 2026 Art &amp; Photography \/ Lightbox Art &amp; Photography \/ Lightbox These photos from Ukraine capture the absurdity of life in wartime Shot during his time as a volunteer on the front lines of the Ukraine war, Aria Shahrokhshahi\u2019s new book is an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1859451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1859451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1859451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1859451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1859451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}