The images photographer Marc Wilson made during visits to Balakliya (a small village in central Ukraine and the homeland of his wife Anna and her family) in the Augusts of 2020/21, capture the essence of life there and the deep connection villagers have to the land. Children play in a river while families shelter from the sun under fruit trees. Livestock wander down lanes. Then war came and the village emptied, the crops replaced by weeds. Drones and missiles flew overhead.

The war reached us quickly, and now we are here burying our dead. All this is unspeakably terrifying. But we are a very strong nation, invincible and indestructible.

Marc and Anna did what they could to help from a distance, sorting visas and getting family and friends out. This book—The Land is Yellow, the Sky is Blue—is their response.

The book design is dual-language, with text written in the shadow of the current war. Marc’s images are sequenced into three days; morning until night. Each new day is preceded by a child’s illustration. The cover papers are tactile and striking, referencing the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag which symbolises the clear blue sky above fields of wheat.

For more information head to Marc Wilson