Polly Braden: Leaving Ukraine at Foundling Museum

Yulia, 16, in Byala, Bulgaria, the day before the family packed up to drive to Warsaw, June 2022 © Polly Braden

Polly Braden: Leaving Ukraine is an intimate portrait of women, forced to leave their homes following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. In this new series of work we see the extraordinary journeys undertaken by mothers, daughters, teenagers and babies in arms.

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Polly Braden has used her camera to document the lives of women and children unexpectedly scattered across Europe. Through first-hand photographs, personal films and recorded conversations, Leaving Ukraine will take the visitor on a geographical and emotional journey, including the highs and lows of job interviews, first days at school, trips to buy wedding dresses and poignant family reunions, as well as gruelling night shifts – a far cry from the jobs they had at home.

To find out more please go to the direct link.