Bard College Berlin News
Jakub Laichter ‘25 wins International Photography Award for his images of war-torn Ukraine
Jakub Laichter ‘25 has been awarded the International Photography Award for non-professional Editorial/Press Photographer of the Year. His winning series of photographs, Waiting for Spring, is a collection of hauntingly unflinching images from Ukraine taken between 2021 and 2024. The award has given Jakub the opportunity to display his work at the House of Lucie Galleries for the next year, offering a wider platform for his images and giving the stories behind them a new chance to be witnessed.
In one image, a man is fishing under a collapsed bridge, in another an old woman is walking on a road with a dead body lying on the side. The ten images in the collection were all taken in Februarys between 2021 and 2024. The overcast season allows Jakub to capture the mix of wintry devastation and hope of renewal to come. As he notes in the description of the collection: “For me, war is waiting. Soldiers waiting to see their loved ones and mothers waiting for their sons. Waiting for the spring counteroffensive, for western ammunition, but above all, waiting for it to end.”
In his acceptance speech delivered at the award ceremony in Athens, Jakub recounted the story behind one of his most poignant images taken in Bucha in 2022 as the Russian army retreated from Kyiv. “I remember the dog hysterically barking as I approached the body of the man,” he said. The neighbors had told Jakub that "the man’s name was Zhena, and it was his dog. Zhena, on his back with a rug over his face, lay dead, killed by Russians only a couple of meters from his house. His body had likely been there for at least a few days, but his four-legged friend refused to leave and remained by his side."
The jury praised his work for its depth and clarity, writing that “these photographs vividly reflect the devastation brought upon the country by war and the people’s yearning for peace.” Though humbled by the award, Jakub emphasized the importance of viewing these images with a mind to establishing long-term, sustainable peace: “Of course, it’s only natural that we all wish for this war to end as soon as possible. However, please, it’s the West’s responsibility to ensure that it ends on Ukrainian terms.”
Jakub's interest in the region began when he was eighteen and has feverishly continued since. A year before the full-scale invasion, he taught circus classes to the children on the frontlines, as a form of social work, as “at that time, it seemed the most reasonable thing to do.” Whenever he is not traveling there, he remains engaged through his academics, like through a current course he is taking on the history of the region titled “East European Studies and Exiled Scholars During the Cold War,” taught by Dr. Ostap Sereda.
When the news broke of the full-scale invasion, Jakub left Deep Springs College—where he studied before coming to BCB—and went to Ukraine. He took most of the photos in the collection while doing disparate tasks like driving boxes with food to the frontline or shoveling coal for a few days for a man he had just met.
When asked why, as a non-Ukrainian, he is so deeply committed to and interested in the war in Ukraine, he simply responds: “Friends. I made a lot of friends along the way. I want to see them while I can.”
It is these deep connections in Ukraine that remained at the forefront of his mind as he accepted the award: “Thank you for taking the time to look at my photos, but please, if I can ask you for something: take your time to look at the work of Ukrainian photographers, because the understanding of Ukrainian experience during these difficult times rightfully ought to be related and represented by Ukrainians.”
By: Mishel Jovanovska ‘25
Post Date: 02-07-2025