Your name
Maija Bondar
Place of birth
Ukraine
Place where you live now
Finland
3 words to describe you
Impulsive, straightforward, honest
Why do you take pictures?
When I work on a project, I live through my traumas. Photography gives me the opportunity to use visual language to talk about what concerns me. I can say that photography for me is therapy that helps me get through difficult moments in life.
Where do you get your inspiration?
The life around me is my inspiration. People, events, people's attitude towards these events, it all makes me think about human nature. People's actions also inspire me.
Who are your influences?
I admire Marina Abramovic's work, especially her freedom and honesty with the audience. Among photographers, I follow the work of Elina Brotherus. This is one of the greatest Finnish photographers.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
Life around me, the events I encounter. My feelings, emotions that arise in me.
What impact would you like your art to have?
Although my projects are very personal, I try to talk about topics that concern many people. It can be very difficult to talk about your feelings, your attitude towards the situation to others. And in some countries it is dangerous. Many people who saw my projects told me that they felt the same thing that I was talking about, and thereby understood that they were not alone in their experiences. It is very important for me.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
Denis Villeneuve Incendies
Is there anything you want to add?
There is nothing more important than family and conscience.

Friends or Foes
Project statement

It so happens that in the war between Russia and Ukraine there are no friends or foes for me. I was born in Ukraine, but I grew up in Russia.
At the beginning of the war, my close friends found themselves on the side of evil. We've stopped communicating. I’ve lost a huge piece of myself. Have they become strangers to me? 
Life in the midst of evil makes people change. It causes distortions in their behavior and changes personalities.
War is evil. And now this evil is all around me.
It is very difficult to resist dehumanization during the war. That is what the “fighting spirit” is based on. It is much easier to kill an impersonal “fascist”, “drug addict”, “Khokhol” than a person like you who also lived, loved, and made plans. 
It is easier to hate all Russians than to see in a person – a person in the first place.
While working on this project, I am thinking about the phenomenon of resistance to dehumanization. And I myself try not to succumb to the temptation to divide everyone into friends and strangers. “Friends” can become “strangers,” and “strangers” can become “friends” very easily.

maija bondar
@maijabondar