“I took this photo at the beginning of 2014 when the Revolution of Dignity was happening in Ukraine. Later that year Crimea was annexed by Russia and the war started in the East of Ukraine,” says photographer Julia Wimmerlin. “This photo is very symbolic, you can see a lone desert plant battling and surviving the sand as the heat of the desert, very much like Ukraine right now—fighting a giant. But like this plant, Ukraine will survive and will flourish,” Wimmerlin says.
Julia Wimmerlin is an Ukrainian-born photographer currently living in La Côte region in Switzerland. With degrees in both Economics and Marketing, Wimmerlin started her career in international marketing before making the jump into photography in 2014. Primarily self-taught, she explains that she relies heavily on her advertising and marketing experience when constructing an image.
Whether taking a portrait or travel shot, her photography works to capture beauty and true emotions. “I started photography because I loved the process. Every time I take a photo I try to extract the beauty of a place—its relations and customs. And beautiful does not mean perfect, it means living, changing, emotional, interesting,” Wimmerlin says.