Portraits of Ukrainian refugees photographed by Germany-based Indian photographer Saurabh Narang are on view at the Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne, Germany. Saurabh, along with Ukrainian journalism student Anastasiia Reshetnyk is one of the winners of Manufactum - Staatspreis NRW 2023, awarded by the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Saurabh and Anastasiia are the winners in the Image and Print Media category for their project Sunflowers Will Still Grow, in which they documented the stories of refugees who fled to Gummersbach, Germany, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022.
Saurabh terms Sunflowers Will Still Grow as a “slow project that required more than pressing the shutter”. The portraits on view at the Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne, are part of a larger multimedia project that has still photographs, video portraits, text and audio recordings in which the refugees share their memories of home and Ukraine’s culture. The project is named after the sunflower, Ukraine’s national flower that the country regards as a symbol of peace.
