Judges
COTM | BTG SHORTLIST 2025
EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER AWARD
Daria Svertilova
They used to be here
Daria is a lens-based artist currently living and working in Paris and Kyiv.
Originally from Odesa, Ukraine, Daria came to France to get her M.A. degree from École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris in Photography & Video. She graduated in 2023.
In her artistic practice Daria explores connections between past and present, focusing mainly on the youth and cultural, social and political context in which young people live.
Her work was exhibited internationally including La Villette (Paris), Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool), Hangar (Brussels), Mystetskiy Arsenal (Kyiv). She also regularly works on commissions with M le Monde and Libération.
Daria is a finalist of Aperture Portfolio Prize (2025), as well as 39th Hyères festival (2024) and Palm* Photo Prize (2022). In 2024 she became a recipient of Beyond the silence grant by Magnum Photos & Odesa Photo Days for the artists researching complex socio-political topics. She also has joined FUTURES in 2025. Daria's work is a part of MOKSOP (Museum of Kharkiv School of Photography) collection.
They used to be here
The erasure of a nation's identity begins with its youngest generations. Forced displacement, abduction and re-education of children are common practices in colonial wars. History is cruel in its cyclical nature.
As early as 2014, Russia began abducting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories and setting up education camps. With the full-scale invasion, these numbers have surged: according to Kyiv, 19,546 children have been confirmed to have been forcibly displaced or missing, while Moscow claims that the number reaches over 700,000. Information is being erased, lost and falsified, making it impossible to determine the exact number.
The goal of Russian authorities is to strip the children of their Ukrainian identity, reframe them as Russian citizens, and in many cases, push them into military service—multiple such instances have been documented in occupied areas.
How many children were taken away forever? Which of them will return? What will happen to them after the re-education camps, after growing up in Russian foster families?
What will happen to their lives, their psyche, their sense of identity?
This series is a visual reflection on the forced displacement of Ukrainian children in the context of war. I look at the issue of abduction through the prism of associations and images, and interpret it as the embodiment of one of the greatest fears of children.
