Photo Exhibition "Echoes of the Blitz: Underground Shelters in Ukraine and London" opens in the UK
The London Transport Museum has opened an exhibition of documentary photographs "Echoes of the Blitz: Underground Shelters in Ukraine and London" about the underground, which served as a shelter for Londoners in the 1940s and Ukrainians during the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. The exhibition, organised in conjunction with the Berlin-based n-ost journalism network, opened on 1 March and will run until spring 2025.
It was reported by the Transport Museum in London.
The exhibition features 70 historical photographs of the British underground during the Second World War and images from the subway in Ukraine during the full-scale Russian war. The works are presented by six documentary photographers: Pavlo Dorohoi, Viacheslav Ratynskyi, Serhii Korovainyi, Maksym Dondiuk, Mykhailo Palinchak and Emil Duque.
In the United Kingdom, well-known images from the war and air raid days include photographs of Londoners hiding in underground stations in the 1940s.
Since 24 February 2022, similar events have been happening in the subways of different Ukrainian cities.
The exhibition "Echoes of the Blitz: Underground Shelters in Ukraine and London" offers to discover "ordinary Ukrainian citizens in extraordinary circumstances" who lead their daily lives in the underground. They turn Kyiv and Kharkiv metro stations into temporary workplaces and homes for themselves and their families.
Despite the 80-year gap between the photographs, they share similarities in human experience in different places and wars.
The exhibition shows the resilience of Ukrainians and Londoners during the war.