These photographs were made over ten beautiful days in Kyiv and Odesa in September 2021. Having previously spent an extended time in Belarus wandering around the big cities of the east and their edgelands, I wanted to visit Ukraine to get a sense of what was possible in a different socio-political context. But I really wasn't prepared for how special the country is. I was captivated by the capital - its contrasts and juxtapositions, the mix of kitsch, Soviet, and orthodox architecture, the feeling down by the Dnieper that you were almost in the middle of nowhere.

After five days in Kyiv, I took a night train to the Black Sea, where the highlight was a walk around the resort of Arcadia, a properly 'hyperreal' place - Italianate villas mingle with a mock-up citadel and the most extravagant primary school I've ever seen. Since 2022, of course, the beach has been out of bounds, and probably mined. And so, looking back, the series takes on a new resonance for me - a beautiful, quirky country on the cusp of brutal invasion.