Having visited Kiev a couple of times during the early nineties it was with great expectations I went back one week in the autumn of 2016.
 

Ukraine – due much to its geographical position in Europa - has historically been subjected to numerous geopolitical occurrences, most of which have had dramatic and often tragic consequences for the nation and its people. With the collapse of the Soviet Union a window of opportunity emerged allowing Ukraine to rebuild an autonomous state. The situation I witnessed back then - in much - required a sudden and scratch built state development, implying great economic and social hardship and risk for the foreseeable future.
 

22 years on and the guns are again rumbling and rocking Ukraine's foundation. My revisit became both a retrospective and a brief observation of a European state currently and again at war on its own soil.  Just two hours flight time from Stockholm.

Kiev has in many respects evolved considerably since last time, yet in other respects much seems to have reached a point of stagnation: Infrastructure, industrial development and foreign investments are too rarely seen in the cityscape. The average salary is less than one tenth of that in Sweden, and  corruption is allegedly widespread.
 

My photographs are a swift and personal but heartfelt look at Kiev, a wonderful and fascinating city in limbo. With the gaining of strength of Russian expansionism and populism in the rest of Europe, Ukraine's future is again moving at the tunes of surrounding nations.
 
I made a book that can be browsed as a pdf here: