Old Khata Book

“Old Khata Book” is a photobook about houses and people. Photographer Anna Ilchenko and journalist Svitlana Oslavska traveled to nearly 100 villages across Ukraine between 2020 and 2023 — from Zakarpattia to Luhansk region, and from Chernihiv region to Kherson region (some of which are now occupied). Through photographs and recorded conversations, they sought to capture rural homes at this moment in history, as this layer of Ukrainian culture is being transformed by time and destroyed by war.

The book includes selected photographs and excerpts from interviews. It is not an encyclopedia of regional architectural styles, although readers will encounter a variety of building traditions. Instead, it is a documentary narrative at the intersection of photography and literature, reportage and visual history. Conversations with homeowners often began with questions about their houses but turned into personal monologues about life.

Old Khata Book goes beyond architecture and ethnography to explore broader questions: who Ukrainians are and how they understand home, beauty, life and death. It does not attempt to exhaust the topic, but invites further exploration.

English translations of all texts are included at the end of the book.