Concept
How does it feel to live as a young person for weeks, months and years in a country where there is a war with no end in sight? How do you grow up in a country where air raids are part of everyday life?
The work „Youth of Ukraine“ (2022-2025) is an intimate insight into the everyday life and emotional worlds of young Ukrainians in times of war. Hope, fears and the longing for pieces of a normal life accompany the young ukrainians every day.
During this formative phase of their lives, when they are confronted daily with the effects, challenges, losses and dangers of war, the photographic long-term work provides an intimate glimpse into their daily experiences.
Vita
Fabian Ritter (*1992) is a German contemporary documentary photographer who lives and works in Dortmund and Europe. Characterised by insights into different countries, cultures and ways of life, he is currently interested in places and themes where contemporary history becomes visible. Today, he dedicates himself to these topics with artistic and documentary approaches. Fabian has been a founding member of DOCKS collective since 2018, which stands for humanistic values in documentary photography, and regularly realises publications and exhibitions with the group.
Since the outbreak of the full-scale Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, he has been focussing on the effects of the war on the civilian local population and regularly travels to Ukraine. In his documentary work in Ukraine, he focuses primarily on young people in the most challenging phase of their lives. In 2019, he completed a bachelor's degree in photography at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and has been working as a freelance documentary photographer throughout Europe ever since. He is a winner of the W. Eugene Smith Leonian Grant, a finalist of the Sony World Photography Awards, the August Sander Prize. Fabian is winner of the NRW Press Photo of the Year 2024 for a picture from Ukraine and has a teaching assignment for documentary photography at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences in the 2025 summer semester. His work is regularly published in American and European media, including TIME, Washington Post, ZEIT, Spiegel, ZEITmagazin, SZ Magazin, Guardian and many more. He also regularly organises exhibitions in Germany and throughout Europe with DOCKS Collective and as an individual author.