2015 Photo Contest, Spot News, 2nd prize

Final Fight for Maidan

Photographer

Jérôme Sessini

Magnum Photos for De Standaard

19 February, 2014

After several months of violence, anti-government protesters remained mobilized by holding barricades in Kiev’s Independence Square, known simply as the Maidan.

About the photographer

Jérôme Sessini

He initiates his own practice, shooting people, landscapes, and daily lives of those around his native Eastern France (with Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Mark Cohen in mind). Ses...

Background story

A deserted avenue near the Maidan after violent clashes between protestors and Ukrainian police.

Protests broke out in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in November 2013, after President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. Thousands of pro-European supporters gathered on the city’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan, in an occupation that would last for months.

Ongoing violence hit a peak on 18 February. Over the next three days, more than 70 people, both protestors and law enforcers, were killed by gunfire, with each side blaming the other for starting the shooting. President Yanukovych fled the country on 21 February, and the pro-European Petro Poroshenko was elected Ukraine’s new president in May.

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/125
Focal length
50 mm
F-Stop
8
ISO
100

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