Please join us for an evening with photographer Ira Lupu to discuss her exhibit in the McKay Atrium of the Wall Building at Davidson College: “Ukraine — Sleeping Disorder.”

Lupu will discuss her work produced during summer visits to wartime Ukraine in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The project uses the medium of photography to reflect on invisible collective trauma. It takes an ethereal but honest look at the darkest hour of uncertainty that became a new normal for the Ukrainians on the ground, and seeks to respond to what growing, fighting, loving, and adapting in times of war feels like.

The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Amanda Ewington, Professor and Chair of Russian Studies, and Lia Newman, Director & Curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries. This event is sponsored by the Bacca Foundation Visiting Scholar and Artist Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Department of Russian Studies, and the Van Every/Smith Galleries.

Free and open to the public. No tickets required.

About Ira Lupu:
Ira Lupu is a photographer and visual artist based between Ukraine and New York City. She graduated from the International Center of Photography (NYC), and Viktor Marushchenko’s School of Photography (Kyiv). Her work has been exhibited through Christie’s London and Paris, Wembley Park, Manifesta Biennial, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Rotterdam Art Week, published in the New York Times, the Economist, Libération, Guardian, Vogue, the British Journal Photography, and acquired by Bonnefanten Museum and Ethan Cohen Gallery, among others. A member of Diversify.Photo, Women Photograph, American Photographic Artists, and Kintzing Licensing, Ira is represented on Artsy.com through Darling Pearls Gallery, London. She held panels and talks with Magnum Photos, Tim Hetherington Trust, Imperial Wars Museum, The Piedmontese Institute for the History of the Resistance. She received project support from Rory Peck Trust, Aperture, and Google. Ira’s latest project Spovid’ (Confession), produced with Odesa Photo Days and Magnum Photos in summer 2024, contemplates the collective war experience among young Ukrainians who remained in the country during the hostilities. In 2022-2023, Ira curated and organized exhibitions of Ukrainian photography in New York City, London, Bratislava, Budapest, and the Hague.