The Druzhba (Friendship) Hotel in Pokrovsk was hit by Russian missiles, creating a wide debris field from what had been rooms, lobbies, and cafes. What is rarely noted when we see urban rubble is the glass. It’s hard to describe how the ground becomes a shattered mirror speckled with sky, people walking past broken into hundreds of reflections. I’m fascinated by how something we take for granted as invisible is suddenly transformed into such a complex material, as if the windows are forming crystals rather than holding the last shards. I wanted an image that captured these sculptural forms left as aftermath, foreground and background both represented, but I'm not. © 2023 Benjamin Busch
The Mykolaiv Government Center sustained a direct missile hit at 8:45 AM on 29 March 2022, resulting in 36 public servants killed, 34 wounded. The Russians attempted to assassinate the Governor, but he was late to work that day. The middle of the building imploded, sucking windows into offices, slicing everyone inside. This image is just one of many hallways, doors blown off their hinges, broken coffee cups still on desks. The rug was red as blood, covered with millions of blades of glass, their edges glinting, every footstep crackling. As I took this picture, the city's air raid sirens began to wail, Russian missiles coming for more buildings. © 2022 Benjamin Busch