NOICE is a photography publication and community for photographers that have a meticulous eye for form, beauty, symmetry, novelty, and humour.
Name
Aria Shahrokhshahi
Title ︎︎︎ Wet Ground
Wet Ground explores Ukraine’s evolving identity amidst turmoil, capturing the fragile equilibrium between destruction and resilience. Challenging conventional portrayals of conflict, the project delves into the quiet tension between violence and normality, the transmission of collective memory, and the transformation of both cultural and physical landscapes.
Structured in three chapters—Land, Identity, and Memory; The Machinery of War; and Legacy and the Future Generation—Wet Ground blends documentary photography with sculptural and multimedia elements to reframe how historical transformation and survival are perceived. The project was initiated in 2019 during extended stays with friends in Ukraine, but took a defining turn in 2022 as the full-scale invasion escalated and many of those friends became soldiers. In response, the artist joined the Ukrainian NGO Base UA as a humanitarian volunteer, participating in civilian evacuations, rebuilding homes and community shelters, and leading photography workshops for young people in rural areas. This immersive experience granted an intimate, multifaceted view of the conflict’s impact—beyond headlines and battlefield imagery.
Wet Ground turns its lens toward the overlooked: fragments of daily life, unspoken gestures, and anonymous landmarks where memory persists despite violence. It places the affected community at the heart of the narrative. This is not a work about war in abstraction, but about people who endure its weight while nurturing hope. It is about those who continue to love, create, rebuild, and remember—while navigating the instability of a world reshaped by violence.
Through this project, Shahrokhshahi contributes to a broader understanding of how conflict imprints itself not only on land, but on identity, heritage, and the imagination of the future.
Structured in three chapters—Land, Identity, and Memory; The Machinery of War; and Legacy and the Future Generation—Wet Ground blends documentary photography with sculptural and multimedia elements to reframe how historical transformation and survival are perceived. The project was initiated in 2019 during extended stays with friends in Ukraine, but took a defining turn in 2022 as the full-scale invasion escalated and many of those friends became soldiers. In response, the artist joined the Ukrainian NGO Base UA as a humanitarian volunteer, participating in civilian evacuations, rebuilding homes and community shelters, and leading photography workshops for young people in rural areas. This immersive experience granted an intimate, multifaceted view of the conflict’s impact—beyond headlines and battlefield imagery.
Wet Ground turns its lens toward the overlooked: fragments of daily life, unspoken gestures, and anonymous landmarks where memory persists despite violence. It places the affected community at the heart of the narrative. This is not a work about war in abstraction, but about people who endure its weight while nurturing hope. It is about those who continue to love, create, rebuild, and remember—while navigating the instability of a world reshaped by violence.
Through this project, Shahrokhshahi contributes to a broader understanding of how conflict imprints itself not only on land, but on identity, heritage, and the imagination of the future.
Click ︎
