What she didn’t know then was that these images would become something more than personal. They would become historic.
In February 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, forcing Platinova to flee to Berlin. Her circle of friends became scattered – some displaced across borders, others drawn to the front lines. Realising the weight these pictures now carried, Platinova gathered the images into a single body of work titled Diary of a Stolen Youth.
“Looking at these pictures now, I feel nostalgic,” Platinova says thoughtfully. “I want to return to this time, before the war began, when I was younger and had this feeling of freedom. But I can’t. Everything has changed.”
Taken between 2018 and 2022, while Platinova was studying public relations at the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute, Diary of a Stolen Youth captures the duality of life in the capital. Her photographs are a mix of black and white, and desaturated colour, bathed in dreamlike lighting and framed with a sense of intimacy. Through this series she reveals the gritty reality of a dwindling Soviet influence clashing with flashes of modern Ukrainian identity.
