Roman Hrytsyna

Roman Hrytsyna is a photographer, a master of transitions, a man through whom life passes.
His path in photography began on February 24, 2022 — the first day of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. For two years he documented the war, working alongside Associated Press. His images were published in leading international media — The Washington Post, El País, major Israeli outlets, and many others — reaching audiences across the globe.
Then came Barcelona. Then Bali. And gradually, the documentary gaze transformed into something else — into art. Into a desire to see not the form of a person, but their state. Not the body — but the soul. Not the moment — but the crossing.
This is where motion, blur, and reflection were born. This is where the camera became a new window — through which he could see what he had never seen before.
Roman has worked with people for over 25 years — as a trainer, coach, and master of transitions. He helps people fall in love with life again. Return to joy. Work with energy, with the deep and the subconscious, with that place where something real begins to flow.
Photography, for him, is one more instrument of this conversation. Visual. Quiet. Alive.
“I always dreamed of painting. Through photography, I be...

My education in photography began not in a classroom — but on the street, on the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. February 24, 2022.
That morning, standing at a gas station in central Kyiv watching the chaos of evacuation, I met Emilio Morenatti — Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Associated Press, thirty years of war coverage from Afghanistan to Gaza. He needed a local driver for two or three days. Those two days became two years.
I worked with AP as fixer, translator, driver, and local guide. Around me every day sat the world's finest photojournalists — Reuters, CNN, New York Times. I stood beside James Nachtwey — one of the five greatest photographers in the world. I watched how they worked. Where they stopped. How they waited. How light fell. Every day was an accelerated masterclass that no institution could replicate.
My first camera arrived in early May 2022 — two months into working with the company. No zoom — just a fixed lens and two feet. I learned to move, to see, to wait. Filippe Dana from Brazil taught me to notice light. One day, sitting behind the wheel, I suddenly shouted: 'Filippe, I can see the light!' — and from that moment, my vision changed forever.
When my images from Kyiv's first massi...

35Awards — Love Story Contest — TOP 4% — March 2026