In Untitled, Patrick Wack portrays a man seen from behind, with an eagle perched on his shoulder. The scene unfolds along the seafront of Berdiansk, overlooking the Sea of Azov in Ukraine. The composition is formally balanced, and the image’s warm, glossy tones evoke a sense of contemplation—almost of inward reflection. Yet the work reveals an underlying ambiguity: behind the apparent stillness lies a dramatic geopolitical context.
The photograph is part of a long-term project that Wack has developed through his annual travels to the region. Through glimpses of landscape and portraits taken along the shores of the Sea of Azov, the artist documents a reality caught in a state of suspension. The seemingly peaceful summer setting—with its symbols of leisure and escape—clashes with the lingering echoes of war and destruction. Since 2014, with the outbreak of the conflict in the Donbas, the area has been deeply affected by Russian military occupation and intense geopolitical tension. The Sea of Azov, once a hub for tourism and trade, has gradually become a stage for conflict and territorial dispute.
It is precisely this subtle duality—never made explicit, yet deeply felt—that forms the core of Wack’s project. The landscape’s apparently neutral beauty becomes charged with latent meaning, while the quiet gestures of his subjects transform into acts of silent resistance or metaphors for the fragility of the present. The viewer is thus confronted with photography that does not overtly denounce, but rather suggests; that does not display horror, but allows it to be sensed in the folds of everyday life.
Patrick Wack (b. 1979, Cannes, France) is a French photographer based in Paris. His practice is defined by a documentary approach, attentive to current socio-political dynamics and the silent transformations of the territories he traverses. His images construct visual narratives that explore the relationship between humanity, landscape, and history.
This article is part of the editorial focus that Generazione Critica is dedicating, throughout the month of August, to the festival Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles. On this occasion, Patrick Wack is participating with his series Azov Horizons, exhibited at the Abbaye de Montmajour. His work invites us to observe what remains—or what resists—in places torn by history, transforming the landscape into a visual archive and photography into a form of quiet yet powerful testimony.
Patrick Wack
Untitled, Anatoli from Kharkiv and his eagle on the seafront of Berdiansk, Ukraine, Summer 2021.
Courtesy of the artist.
27/08/25
