Inpu

   Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the nation and the country have found themselves at the crossroads of two worlds: life and death, light and darkness, freedom and enslavement.
   For two months, Andrii was in a small village in the Kyiv region of Ukraine.
   The work on Andrii Kasianchuk’s project was planned as simple documentation of his life with his family far from the front line. Later he began to notice the symbolism in the photographs taken. The result is his project, Inpu. Contrary to the initial plan, there are almost no people in the images. “Partly because I’m a pretty closed person and I like to spend time alone,” he explains. Instead, this work is filled with many landscapes of nature, plants and animals. Love and respect for nature allowed him to immerse himself in contemplation and deep thoughts while walking around the village. “It’s like one long meditation, like being in two dimensions at the same time,” he says.
   The title of the series seems to hint at loneliness, personal choice and the path to be overcome. After all, Inpu is the Egyptian name of the deity Anubis, one of the most important characters in Egyptian mythology. It was his role in preparing the bodies of the dead for burial and accompanying their souls to the afterlife.
   The photos show a feeling of movement and oscillation between dusk and dawn. In one image, the calm whiteness of a dead animal’s bones contrasts with the process of knitting the “threads of life” in another. “I spent many days looking at the images and selecting them for my project. Each time I watched that, the further away, the more sinister my photos became,” Andriy recalls. In the end, he decided to completely remove the color and left only the essence.
   “During my work, I had a special attachment to horses and storks, which are several times involved in the project,” he recalls. His encounters with these majestic animals were some of the most special. “Although all the horses I saw were tied up, and the storks, for the most part, soared far into the sky, it also symbolizes the struggle and tension between the worlds.” He adds: “Wherever a person is and whatever he is, his path passes between two opposites. There will always be dangers and temptations, but it is up to her to decide which way to turn.”