Live not on Evil

2015 – 2016

This series features female soldiers from both sides of the War in Donbas, Ukraine. The concept of female soldiers is controversial in Ukraine due to traditional gender roles. War, for most, is ‘man’s business’. Women who wanted to enlist had to join volunteer battalions linked to the far right. Today, while most forms of life near the contact line have either fled or succumbed, some brave women, often alone in a sea of men, are trying to fight for their territory.

Being ‘female’ is considered to be the antithesis of war, and many female soldiers forced to take on ‘maleness’ are disgraced for being ‘unwomanly’. I think of these women in terms of a palindrome (a word that reads the same backwards and forwards), reflected in the title of this work. Despite similar autobiographies, these women take on varying styles, wear different insignias, choose different sides. Most have experienced and overcome extreme fear. All are seeking relief from a situation that resembles hell.

This project seeks to overcome mainstream Soviet-style misrepresentations that cast militarised women as either vulnerable or over-sexed, often used to recruiting men into the army. Some of our biggest historical guides are films, and how many have you seen where a woman is cast only to serve as a love interest for male soldiers?

Jennifer Osborne is a freelance photographer whose career started in her early twenties with a one year work contract at COLORS Magazine in Italy. She has since exhibited work internationally at some notable venues including Aperture Gallery, Denver Biennial, Arles, Perpignan and The Old Church in Amsterdam. Recently, she has resided between Vancouver and Kiev where she produces photographic work thematised by women and gender politics. Jennifer is also an avid horseback rider and pianist.