HAPPY SPRINGS

The photographs were made across Ukraine between 2015 and 2020 in the spring and summer seasons. The images form a collective portrait of being young in Ukraine. They were taken on the way to the sea along the banks of the Dnipro River to the beaches of the Black Sea; and further onwards to the Arabat Spit, to a mineral hot spring in a small village close to the Sea of Azov called Shchaslyvtseve, which means Happy in Ukrainian. Patrick Bienert is a German photographer, who works between fashion and long term projects of portrait, landscape and documentary photography. His photographic work is grounded on cultures and identity in relation to the history and its traces between the land and its inhabitants. He predominantly documented the youth culture and the transformation on the borders of Eastern Europe. He has published the books Wake up Nights (2017) and East End of Europe (2020). Editorial projects have been published in The New York Times, Magazine, Double Magazine, Luncheon Magazine, Document Journal and Zeit Magazin.