/ 2025 / Portraiture / Other

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Kirstine Fryd, Denmark
• Studio
  Kirstine Fryd Fotografi
• Website
  https://www.kirstinefryd.com
• Instagram
  kirstinefryd

Yelyzaveta, 23, fled Mykolajiv in southern Ukraine and now lives in Jutland, Denmark. “One night, my father told me to leave. I packed a small bag with winter clothes,” she recalls. “I’m so grateful for the support we've received in the community, but I think we all carry signs of PTSD. It was deeply traumatizing. I don’t know where I belong anymore.”

Her story is one of millions. The war between Russia and Ukraine has sparked Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, displacing an estimated 7.9 million people — 90 percent of them women and children.

Kirstine Fryd is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller based in Denmark. Kirstine holds a MA degree in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London and a MA degree in visual anthropology and journalism from Concordia University, Montreal.

Apart from doing commissioned work Kirstine is engaged in long-term projects with a special interest in portraiture. Her main field of interest to explore the feminine human landscape and the power of photographic storytelling from a female perspective to advocate and illuminate.

Awards 2024: Winner British Journal of Photography - Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6

2023: Danish Picture of the Year - Portrait series