A photo project traveling by mail “I find it beautiful 1-3004"

Before you is the a part of a project “I find it beautiful 1-3004” that serves as an attempt to capture how differently people perceive and feel the harmony of the world around them. As of the end of July 2026, more than 40 participants had participated in the project, and the total number of kilometers they had traveled by mail (from Odesa and back) exceeded 10,000 kilometers. Here are 10 photographs from three albums.

I was deeply shocked to see how war has woven itself into our understanding of aesthetics, living so tightly alongside us that it feels like a constant, inescapable companion. Even in response to such a simple question—what is beautiful?—people chose to share images of war, trauma, and destruction.

The cover of the album that was mailed to anyone who wanted it.

For four years now, throughout the full-scale war with Russia, I have been exploring what we define as beautiful during such times. The concept is simple: each participant (male or female) received this handmade artbook and was asked to paste in two printed photographs (10×15 format) that they (he or she) considered beautiful.

I did not specifically select professional photographers or artists—I was interested in the raw, sincere, and subjective gaze of any individual. 3004 is not just a number. It is the number of kilometers this album traveled by mail and through the hands of various people before returning to me in Odesa.

The first part of the project managed to visit Kryvyi Rih and twice reached both Lviv and Kyiv.However, life made its own adjustments. Unexpectedly for the project itself, images of war appeared in the artbook alongside peaceful aesthetics.

What we consider “beautiful” or “important for memory” has transformed along with us.