Book Review: Stop Tanks With Books, Mark Neville
The Choir at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Orthodox Church, 2017 ⒸMark Neville
Written by Sophie Yates
Edited by Jana Massoud
Documenting the rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia in recent years, Mark Neville’s photography book, Stop Tanks With Books, aims to increase international support for Ukrainian independence. Neville’s work from 2015-2021 is a foresight into the crisis currently inflicting Ukraine, the Russian invasion in late February 2022 having caused more than 3.6 million refugees to leave the country and an estimated 6.38 million people to be displaced. In 2015, Neville began photographing scenes in Eastern Ukraine - of the people going to school and work, enjoying time at the beach, and troops settled at the border, capturing a society on the brink of more conflict and calling on the removal of Russian troops. In parallel to 80 of Neville’s photographs, the book includes short stories about the ongoing conflict from Ukranian novelist, Lyuba Yakimchuk.
In order for his project to instigate a real impact, Neville decided to send out 750 complimentary copies to a specific audience of lawmakers, celebrities, members of the media, and ambassadors. The first deliveries of Stop Tanks With Books came only a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Zhytomyr Special Boarding School for Deaf Children No.2, 2016 ⒸMark Neville
The first photo in the book, Oksana, Hirs’ke, Luhansnk, 2021, portrays a young girl holding an umbrella on the side of a street in Ukraine. Another photo titled Alina, Orihovo Vasylivka village, Donetsk, frames a younger girl standing next to ducklings in what looks to be a backyard. With the painful knowledge of the violence and inhumanity that continues to ensue from the refugee crisis and current war in Ukraine, it is hard - nearly impossible - not to wonder what became of these two girls and the many innocent civilians like them. Neville effectively captures the normalcy of life and the human component of a country on the verge of war, concurrently forcing policymakers to face images of the people who are actively affected by their inaction pertaining to the ongoing conflict.
In order to illustrate the duality of the calm before the storm, Neville also included images of the frontlines in his book, one of which being ‘Stalingrad’ Checkpoint, Avdiivka, Donetsk. This image depicts a troop soldier devoid of emotion at the border between Ukraine and Russia. In the past year, over 100,000 Russian troops have gathered at the border. With Ukrainian soldiers as the subjects of his images, Neville depicts the reality of wartime and the members of society that have to leave everything behind and face the horrors and trauma that accompany the crisis. Boy near a frontline, Luhansk, 2019, portrays a young boy near the Russian occupation in battered clothes, standing in rubble amidst collapsed buildings. The boy’s face appears to be cold and empty, but simultaneously heavy with defeat and destruction.
Tatiana and her family at a ‘Father’s House,’ a rehabilitation centre for women and children in Sviatopetrivske, Kyiv region, 2016, shows a mother sitting on a bed with a crying baby in her arms and another young child sitting beside her. The most striking element of this photo is the intense worried look on everyone’s faces, as if they are anticipating something terrible to come. Neville’s work highlights the stress that occupation inflicts on the occupied, and their fear for what is to come: a Russian invasion.
Maria Holubets, Natalia Tarasenko, Rozalia Boiko, Maria Shvanyk, and Rozalia Mahnyk, at the Greek Catholic Monastery, Zvanivka, 2018 ⒸMark Neville
Queue to cross Stanytsia Luhanska Bridge, 2019, is a scene from a bridge that separates the Ukrainian controlled area of Donbas and the temporarily Russian-occupied areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The image presents a large group of mostly elderly people tightly packed together, grief-stricken as they prepare to cross the bridge. Neville writes that, at the time of the photo, more than a million people would cross the bridge every month for reasons as varied as seeing their families or even seeking healthcare. Because of the conflict with Russia, the bridge was badly damaged, making it more difficult for the disabled and elderly to cross. Neville captured the burden of the Russian occupation on the elderly’s faces - their trek across the bridge made it much more difficult due to the treacherous conditions, checkpoints, and restrictions.
Alexsandr Konokov and Sasha on their Goat Farm in Decyatny, Zhytomyr Oblast, 2017 ⒸMark Neville
In Stop Tanks With Books, Neville successfully helps the reader understand the real extent and impact of war on citizens, offering insight into the everyday lives in Ukraine as tensions continue to rise. If anything is going to push people to take action, it’s knowing who they will be protecting in doing so and what will continue to happen to them if they do not. Neville gives names and faces to the conflict, and a clearer perspective of the people that are hurt by war: innocent, everyday citizens. Not only does Neville’s work array the results of the Russian occupation from the years 2015-2021, but it also preludes to the recent invasion and current attempts to take Ukraine.
The book is currently sold out but is available for March 2022 pre-order. To learn more or purchase the book, visit the Nazraeli Press site.
