Different Beauty: Images from Donbas in David Těšínský’s Bucharest exhibition

Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017.

The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In 2017, he was in Lviv, photographing the soldiers returning from the front and reuniting with their families. He showed some of the images he had taken to a curator, who decided to send him on a photo assignment in the eastern region of the country. He arrived there in an army car, unofficially, as he explains, so that the process would go more easily and quickly. What he brought back were the stories of the people he encountered. Among them are a Russian-born woman fighter who joined the Ukrainian army at 18, a Georgian soldier named Nana - a mother of three children, and a philology graduate turned reconnaissance platoon commander.

Although portraits of women make up a significant part of the selection, the exhibition covers a variety of images highlighting stories of human connection and daily life in the shadow of the war. Among them is the photograph displayed on the exhibition poster: a child being offered a gun by a soldier. “The soldiers were giving some supplies to the school as support. They were smoking outside, and gave the kid the gun to see what it feels like to hold it,” he recalls.

The Bucharest exhibition has the same name as Těšínský’s first album, released in 2022. Different Beauty gathers images taken throughout the photographer’s travels to more than 60 countries, with chapters ranging from the revolutionary youth in Iran to exorcism in Ethiopia.

It all began when, after finishing school, he purchased a one-way flight to New York. “I just knew I wanted to travel, take pictures, and experience life,” he explains. Although he had been away before, with friends, this was the first time he had traveled by himself. “I thought I wanted to stay in America. I changed my mind and I left for India.” It has since added up to tens of countries and photo projects covering subjects as varied as the gang-related problems in Guatemala and Mexico, the life of Japanese businessmen, slum life in India, Nepal, Thailand, Japan, and Cambodia, or the LGBTQ movement in Belarus. While in Bucharest for the opening of the exhibition, he photographed Mihaela Minca, a “witch specializing in traditional Roma magic,” according to her Instagram profile with more than 10k followers.

As for his next destination, although nothing is set yet, he will open more exhibitions this year in Warsaw, Belgrade, New York, and Jerusalem, showcasing the work of a photographer interested in people’s stories, marginalized communities, and those impacted by social and political conflict.