Pharmakon

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Look at Alexander Chekmenev’s photographs in this book. See how they have tied the dead man’s wrists off with clean white rags, and placed his battered head on a perch of kindness? They’re troublesome, disturbing – they are certainly not easy to engage with. You have every right to be disturbed by them. I certainly am. But there’s something more to these photographs than just easy gore; think of them as images drawn from Ukraine’s bitter history, where its exposure to new armies and ideologies on Europe’s eastern flanks has made it the premier killing ground for a thousand years. (Donald Weber) Show more