__News

We are delighted to share with you that the long-term editorial project we have been developing with Edgar Martins has been shortlisted for the PHMuseum dummybook awards 2025.

Когда он говорил, он производил воображаемые выстрелы своими руками в форме пистолета or When he spoke he fired imaginary shots with his gun shaped hands,  is a collection of historical photographs assembled over a decade in a unique and poignant collaboration with The Archive of Modern Conflict (UK) and two close friends—a Ukrainian and a Russian soldier—both also avid photography collectors—who have chosen to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from their respective communities. Their partnership is imbued with a deep historical irony, as their parents fought on the same side as soldiers within the Soviet Union during WWII and the subsequent Cold War.

Sourced from these combined holdings as well as Edgar Martins’ personal archives, the collection primarily features images taken by Soviet soldiers between the 1940s and 1980s. These photographs explore a surreal side of conflict: the intense boredom, the dark, game-like play, and the spontaneous, performative acts of violence that make the terror of war feel mundane, even scripted. They provide a glimpse into the heightened state of tension and the high-stakes, violent play that is forced upon soldiers and citizens when nations are at war but not engaged in direct battle.

While the majority of these works were assembled before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the project was completed during the ongoing war. This reality transformed the editorial process dramatically, with some of the final prints having to be carefully smuggled out of Russia to be included in the project.

This carefully curated body of work uses the past to confront recent geopolitical events, exploring the recurring cycles of history and the deeply human, often bizarre, ways people navigate the fragile threshold between peace and open conflict.