The series of photographs was taken at the former estate of the landowner Litvarev (Sumy, Ukraine), where the writer Anton Chekhov lived with his family during the summer months of 1888–1889 and first conceived the idea for The Cherry Orchard. Behind the house was a fruit garden, which is partially preserved to this day. Series of 7 photographs. 15 × 20 cm

The artist created this installation near his grandmother’s summer house. He fastened her belongings to the concrete pillars, which serve as symbolic links between earth and heaven. Series of 5 photographs, 1986. Nos. 1–3: 50 × 50 cm; Nos. 4–5: 18 × 24 cm

In these pieces the artist moves freely between photo-collage, conceptual gesture, documentary observation, and poetic anthropology. What unites them is a persistent desire to strip away ideological veneers and expose the fragile, absurd, and deeply human layers beneath everyday Soviet life.

Bratkov’s portraits of the 1980s form a raw and incisive visual archive of a generation suspended between the collapse of Soviet ideological certainties and the emergence of a new, undefined reality. Created before the artist became widely associated with the Kharkiv photography school of the 1990s, these early works already reveal the hallmarks of his later practice: an acute psychological intensity, a quasi-anthropological attention to the human body, and an unapologeticall

A critical micro-narratives built from the most ordinary, often impoverished objects of everyday life. Each work isolates material fragments of late-Soviet existence and transforms them into visual statements about memory and the absurd logic of a collapsing ideological system. These images inhabit a space between documentation and metaphor, revealing the psychological and political charge.

The day of the Chernobyl catastrophe was the artist’s wedding day. As a reserve officer, he received a note from the local military administration instructing him to be prepared for departure to Chernobyl. At the time, he did not know the scale or seriousness of the disaster — everything was kept secret from the public. He posed for these farewell pictures with his brother, but in the end they forgot about him, and he remained at home. A kind of luck. 1986. Series of 3 photog

These photo-objects from the late 1980s treat the photograph as a material component rather than a purely visual image. Combined with industrial and domestic materials, the works emphasize weight, surface, and physical presence.

Collection of 25 black-and-white photographs, some hand-coloured, and a notebook. Early photographic work. 1992–1993. 21.5 × 239.5 cm

The series brings together two works: Ukraine  (1993) and the diptych With and without Braid  (1994). Traditional markers are displaced into industrial and private interiors. Through minimal staging, identity is presented as a reversible and contingent construct.

Frozen Landscape addresses the subject of homelessness. For this project, the artist photographed locations where vulnerable people often froze to death. He then encased these photographs in water and suspended the resulting ice cubes to melt during the exhibition, empathically evoking the chilling reality of human loss. “One could say, for example, that I want to make a painting out of a photograph. But in fact, I want it to be more like a sculpture that has shape, volume, a

Series of seventeen photographs. The images register movement, instability, and partial visibility, shifting the scene away from clear documentation toward a fragile and transient perception of reality. 1994. Series of 17 photographs. 10 × 15 cm

The images depict modest, improvised structures on the outskirts of the city, recorded as isolated forms within an open landscape, suspended between use and abandonment. . Series of 6 photographs. 60 × 60 cm

The images document a working environment at a port site, where human figures, animal bodies, and industrial structures coexist within a single operational space. 1995. Series of 15 photographs. 18 × 40 cm

Series of forty photographs with occasional handwritten annotations. The installation presents everyday scenes as disconnected yet accumulating fragments. 1995. 40 photographs (occasionally with handwriting) on a wooden shelf. 60 × 50 cm

1995. Series of 8 photographs. 20 × 20 cm

The work refers to the mass psychoses caused by the serial killer Andrey Chikatilo, who operated in the final decade of the Soviet Union. The maniac was eventually captured in 1990 and executed four years later. Examining various rumours, fears, and mythologies, the artist created a schoolboy’s diary, imagining a boy who could potentially become a maniac. (Chikatilo was born and spent his childhood in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.) 1995. A school notebook with a 17-page spre

Gosprom (House of State Industry), one of the first Soviet skyscrapers, built in 1925–1928 on Kharkiv’s largest square — Dzerzhinsky Square (since 1996, Freedom Square). 1996. Series of 6 photographs. 140 × 100 cm

Princesses touch upon post-Soviet mentality and women's rights issues. Four portraits of young females were made at the Kharkiv Center for Reproductive Medicine. The women in pictures have their tights lowered and hold semen sample containers in their laps, apparently, awaiting A Prince Charming. The names of real-life European royalty heirs are written on the containers. 1996. Alina, Larun, Lyudmila, Marusya. Gelatin silver print. 140 × 110 cm

Lollipop  (1996) and Chamber  (1996) extend photography into the realm of objects and installations. In both works, photographic images are embedded within material structures—sugar, cellophane, wood, and enclosed architectural forms—shifting the image from representation toward containment, display, and physical encounter. The works were exhibited at the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), Ukraine, in 1996 and 1997

The series responded to the increasing practice of Ukrainian orphan children being adopted by wealthy Americans. 1997. Series of 13 photographs of museum stuffed birds of prey and small children. Dimensions variable. Installation view: Kohta gallery, Helsinki, Finland, 2022