Most postcards carry a simple sentiment: Wish you were here.
But the cards Anastasia Taylor-Lind and Alisa Sopova are mailing randomly to people around the globe convey a haunting message: Wish this stranger was still alive.
The pair hopes their postcards — each scribbled with the name of a victim of armed conflict in Ukraine — will put a human face on war.
Photo: Gisele Cassol via AP
“I wanted people to have a more personal experience with conflict,” said Taylor-Lind, a photojournalist who was on assignment for National Geographic when inspiration struck in a post office in the middle of the war zone.
Fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,600 people in eastern Ukraine since it began in 2014. Ukraine filed a case against Russia this month at the UN’s highest court, accusing Moscow of illegally annexing Crimea and illicitly bankrolling rebel groups.
Although the shelling has diminished, Taylor-Lind feels compelled to keep alive the memories of those on all sides who have perished.
At a post office in the embattled city of Slavyansk, she came across postcards with idyllic scenes: a cityscape framed by a river and blossoming trees; lovers embracing at twilight along a moonlit promenade. Printed on them was a cheerful greeting in English: “Welcome to Donetsk,” the capital of the Donbass region and ground zero for the conflict.
In the summer of 2015, Taylor-Lind ordered 1,000 cards and began addressing them to people around the world she had never met. Some were chosen at random; others had responded to her vague offer via social media of a postcard — not knowing what they would get.
That launched a continuing project that gained momentum last year while she was at Harvard University on a fellowship. Each carried a cryptic message with the name of a casualty of war and the date that he or she died.
“The war in Ukraine isn’t something that happened and then just went away. The lives and livelihoods of millions were affected,” she said. “This was very much an experiment. I didn’t know how people would react.”
React they have, with anger, shock, confusion and sadness.
A few recipients initially puzzled over the cards, which are postmarked in Ukraine, worrying whether someone in their household had lost a friend. Eventually, and by the hundreds, they have shared their thoughts using the hashtags #WelcomeToDonetsk and #WarIsPersonal.
Some have carried their cards to a leafy park, a remote beach or a tranquil mountainside, and held a moment of solitary remembrance for a fellow human they never met. Others have posed their cards next to lighted candles and posted photos and videos in somber tribute .
Jochem Lindelauf, of Groningen, Netherlands, was left reeling when he got a card that read: “Artem Gorlenko was killed in Spartak on Tuesday the 13th of October 2015.”
Oct. 13 is Lindelauf’s birthday.
“The crazy coincidence of my birthday brought it even more home for me,” he said in an Instagram post.
Taylor-Lind, an English-Swedish national now at the Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville, New York, and Sopova, a journalist from Donetsk doing her Nieman Fellowship at Harvard this year, have mailed more than 2,000 postcards to people in 60-plus countries.
Trying to identify those killed has been a challenge. Neither the Ukrainian government nor the UN maintains a comprehensive list, forcing Sopova to spend many hours scouring news reports and gruesome photographs posted online, as well as corresponding with officials and others back in Ukraine.
“It means nobody cares,” Sopova said. “And that makes this project even more important.”
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS