Kyiv-based British artist and founder of Postcode Ukraine, Mark Neville, works at the intersection of art, activism, and documentary, investigating the social function of photography. Often working with closely knit communities in a collaborative process intended to be of direct, practical benefit to the subject, his photographic projects to date have frequently made the people he portrays the primary beneficiaries of the work. These projects have gone on to be presented as solo exhibitions at venues including the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, the Imperial War Museum London, and the British military, Battle Against Stigma’. This first visit was the first of many, as I developed a profound sense of belonging in Ukraine, ultimately relocating both home and studio from London to Kyiv in 2020.
The concept behind my pre-war book, Stop Tanks With Books, had been to weaponise the medium of the photo book to galvanize the West into supporting Ukraine’s fight for independence. After seven years of work, and just weeks before the full-blown war escalated, I published the book and sent out 750 complimentary copies to an international hit list of powerful and influential people as a call to action. Out of the blue, I was contacted by recipients of Stop Tanks With Books, an art collector family, Bill, Judy, Douglas, and James, who are also collectors of my photographs. Of all the recipients of my complimentary book, ranging from the super-rich to the international media to NATO members, celebrities, politicians, and world leaders, they were the only people who came forward and offered help in real terms. I proposed that we establish a hybrid project called Postcode Ukraine, which combined humanitarian aid with my various forms of documentary film and photography – and to my awe, this visionary family supported the idea.
My second book about Ukraine, Diary of a Volunteer, documents both my own journey and that of the charity since 2022. It is our latest effort to weaponise photography in order to support my adopted home. The book is a call to action for the West, a meditation on trauma, a tool kit of vital information for the Ukrainian audience about where to access support, and a reconfiguration of the roles of both the photo book and the photographer.”
May 2024
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