On June 8, Sumy State University Congress Centre hosted the opening of the photo exhibition "War by Student's Lens". The organizers of the event: Sumy Regional Organization of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Sumy State University, Media Centre and Faculty FPSC of SumDU.

The idea of the photo exhibition was born spontaneously, according to Serhii Maliuk, head of the media content production group of SumDU. During the class, students showed him their photos taken during the first month of the war. The photos turned out to be worthy of being seen by other people.

- «After such emotionally difficult and stressful days, everyone needed a positive outlet of energy. The exhibition turned out to be very truthful. The photographs reveal the inner world of each author – his problems, experiences, feelings and expectations,» said Serhii Maliuk.

The chairman of Sumy regional organization of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, head of the Department of Journalism and Philology, SumDU, Volodymyr Sadivnychyi said that with the start of full-scale war the university was engaged in making sure that all applicants for education were safe, and at the same time try to continue the educational process. In particular, students majoring in journalism were tasked with documenting everything that was going on around them as much as possible, in order to preserve the memory of these events in history. These are the photographs taken by the students during the first two months of the war that form the basis of the photo exhibition.

Yelyzaveta Serhienko, a fourth-year journalism student, is one of the authors of the represented works. Her photos show pictures of towns in Sumy region that were liberated from occupation. The girl says she sent to the exhibition about 30 photos taken as a part of the international project "Movement of Humanity".

- I took pictures a week after the russian troops left Sumy region, but even then it was not easy to get to Okhtyrka and Trostianets with a camera (without a journalist's ID). A lot of checkpoints, bans on photographing military facilities and strict instructions from the military...

In general, the students’ lenses captured both the harsh and disturbing realities of war, and moments full of optimism and faith in life. The photographs are different but are all united by a single life-affirming motif – hope for the speedy and inevitable liberation of Ukrainian land.

The exhibition will last for three weeks. The Faculty FPSC, SumDU, invites everyone to visit Sumy State University Congress Centre to see with their own eyes what "War by Student's Lens" looks like.