ZURICH.- When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, daily life for millions of Ukrainians changed overnight. Since then, the war has seeped into every corner of existence—sometimes loudly, through explosions and sirens, and sometimes quietly, through absence, fear, and loss. That lived reality is at the heart of “The Clock of War – The Ukrainian Photo Diary,” an exhibition now on view at Photobastei Zürich.
Rather than focusing on frontline combat, the exhibition invites visitors to step into the everyday lives of civilians. The images show what it means to keep going under constant threat: children studying while air-raid sirens sound, neighbors helping one another, animals finding shelter, families trying to protect what remains of home. Together, they form a moving visual diary of resilience, memory, and hope.
“The Clock of War” is a concept exhibition built around twelve thematic chapters, each addressing different forms of loss brought on by the conflict. These themes unfold across 24 large-scale photographic collages, created from thousands of images drawn from the digital archive of the Ukrainian Photo Diary. The collages combine individual photographs into powerful new compositions that reflect the passage of time and the cumulative weight of war.
The Ukrainian Photo Diary itself was founded in 2022 by Swiss photographer Patrick Lüthy, following his involvement in helping evacuate Ukrainian refugees to Switzerland. Those encounters sparked an idea: to document the war not through distant media lenses, but through the eyes of those living it. Today, the project brings together professional photographers, amateurs, children, and private individuals, all contributing images free of charge.
The photographs—published online at ukrainianphotodiary.org and now presented in exhibition form—range from scenes of destroyed cities and makeshift hospitals to classrooms relocated to basements and fleeting moments of calm. Any donations raised through the project go directly to war victims in Ukraine, reinforcing its humanitarian mission.
First presented in 2024 at the Kunstmuseum Olten, “The Clock of War” has since become a traveling exhibition. Its stop in Zurich offers audiences a chance to engage with the war beyond headlines and statistics, through intimate, human stories told by those who live them every day.
