I am in love with photography and I believe in the power of a visual story to bring about social change. This isn’t just my creative approach, but a part of my own story. As when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine offended the world in 2022, I became a refugee myself, eventually finding a new home in the Czech Republic.

I intrinsically know from my own eyes that this one word: ‘refugee’ instantly marks you as a ‘zero’ to the world; how it erases your identity, your education, career, and home – everything you had just yesterday. You are now to be feared, distrusted, spat at. My lens wants to show you that behind this label the world tattoos on you against your will, there is still a soul, a person. A person who must every single day prove to themselves and their new world that they still have a human right to a dignified existence; a right to work, to study, to feel joy, to grieve, to fall, and to get back up again.

My experience is deepened by my work as an integration centre coordinator, where I assist migrant women in finding skilled employment, and where I get to listen to their valuable stories every day.

This struggle for purpose, for the right to live again not merely to survive, became the heart of my previous photo project, ‘From Life to Life’, dedicated to Ukrainian women in the Czech Republic. I am incredibly proud that I could capture the attention of Eurodiaconia and this marked the beginning of our ongoing collaboration.

In this exhibition, I expand my focus to explore the integration of migrant women into the labour market on a pan-European scale. Each of my photographs is not just a portrait, but a dialogue. My attempt is to present the unique journey of each migrant woman with her daily struggle for self-respecting security in a new society. Because, as I have sorely learned, any one of us can, in a heartbeat, lose everything and become this one word again: ‘refugee’.

You can view Yuliia’s full portfolio on her website here.