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13 May | WWII Photography: Past / Present / Future

WWII Photography: Past / Present / Future

When: 13 May 2026 18:30
Where: Dialogbüro Vienna, Eßlinggasse 9/6, 1010 Vienna, Austria (only offline)
Language: English
Admission: free, please register here

The meeting will be based on the idea of fragmented narratives, micro-histories and the process of uncovering hidden aspects of historical image use, particularly during turbulent times of war and crisis, and aims to show the cross-influences that such narratives have on past and current events. It also underscores the importance of personal stories within the broader political context and how they contribute to our understanding of history.

Arthur Bondar will present his long-term archival project based on his private collection of over thirty thousand unknown negatives of WWII. He will tell about unique findings and hard work collecting them over the past eight years as well as publications of previously hidden stories from WWII.

Arthur Bondar’s archive is not a matter of creating a counter-narrative or deconstructing existing histories, but of completing them, of creating a richer and fairer narrative, reevaluating existing knowledge and shedding light on other stories that have been deliberately omitted or unjustly forgotten.

Over thirty thousand unknown negatives of WWII

For many years photography has played a crucial role in shaping political narratives, influencing public opinion, and documenting historical events. At the same time photography by itself was highly manipulated and mussiused. Today, with appearance of AI this issue becomes even more sensitive. At the meeting Arthur Bondar will tell why original historical evidences matters and why we need to preserve them while it is still possible

Arthur Bondar (1983, Ukraine) — photographer, visual artist, publisher and collector. He works on his personal documentary and art projects that are centered around the themes of historical events, collective and private memories. He creates mixed media artworks, installations, documentary and conceptual works. Arthur has graduated from the Photography and Human Rights course of New York University. He was awarded and granted with National Geographic Grant (2011), Magnum Emergency Fund (2012), The Documentary Project Fund (2013), the Best Photographer in Ukraine (2013) and Allard Prize (2016). He was nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award and the Prix Pictet Award (2016).

His projects were exhibited as installations and exhibitions in different art institutions worldwide. Arthur cooperates with numerous international magazines, newspapers and online media. He is the author of 8 photobooks, among them: “Shadows of Wormwood”, “Signatures of War”, “Barricade: The Euromaidan Revolt”, “Valery Faminsky V.1945”, "The Verge", “Olga Ignatovich. In the Shadow of the Big Brother”.

For many years Arthur Bondar has been collecting unknown WWII negatives all over the world, exploring and systematizing these historically unique and important documentary evidences. This collection that is consist of more than 15000 unknown visual evidences and different objects. Arthur Bondar exposes these historical heritage as complex projects and exhibitions with different art and documentary approach, that allows us to look at WWII history from different perspectives.

Register to the event

2026-05-05 14:01