“Heroes of PFVMH” – a photo gallery by Kostiantyn Liberov
A soldier’s hand, covered with the soot of war and Ukrainian black soil, is held by a doctor’s hand in a white sterile glove – as if an angel came down from heaven to keep the warrior in this world, not give him prematurely to the raw earth.
A photographer from Odesa, Kostiantyn Liberov, published a gallery of impressive photos about the work of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital’s medics at the front – “Heroes of PFVMH.”
In these photos – the pain, blood, sweat and tears of those who were ready to pay the highest price for the freedom of their Motherland with weapons in their hands, and those who do their best trying to save them when it would seem that this price has already been paid.
Probably, the gallery could be called by one word – just “Heroes.”
Photo: @libkos
“Today, almost every Ukrainian has seen photos of Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberovy,” writes Vogue. “Emotional and honest shots of these Odessa photographers have repeatedly circulated on social media … Even [President] Volodymyr Zelensky used their works to draw the world’s attention to the horrors of war that the Russian invaders brought to our land.”
Before the full-scale war, the couple of photographers specialized in love stories, and quite successfully – they were among the most famous in this niche in the territory of the former U.S.S.R., they conducted master classes and launched courses.
In early March 2022, the photo artists joined the volunteer organizations of Odessa. “All the time we were going somewhere, delivering something and bringing something back,” says Kostiantyn. “On one of these trips, Vlada asked me to take a camera along. We didn’t have any special plan, but she knew that photography was the main business of our lives, one of its greatest values. And so it happened that we had to take another load to the Odesa railway station, where we witnessed the departure of evacuation trains to western Ukraine. Before our eyes, men cried saying goodbye to their families, and children did not understand what was happening. I took a few shots just on the platform and posted them on Instagram.”
See the full gallery on the Kostiantyn & Vlada Liberov website.
Read about Konstantin and Vlada Liberovy on the Vogue website.
