You Can’t Go Home Again

You Can’t Go Home Again focuses on my homecoming to Ukraine in the midst of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the cultural tension between my Western upbringing and Ukrainian roots, and a post-documentary analysis of the colonial lineage from which documentary photography has emerged. The work addresses issues of an outsider becoming an insider through immersion with community and participatory collaboration with a place and its people.

Many of the images were taken in an old medical supply factory in Lviv. The factory, defunct in its original purpose since ‘02, now serves as an artist refuge for displaced youth. This small artist-community mediates the dissonant feelings of belonging and transience in a place that isn’t our own through collaboration.

Rather than reduce the meaning of the work made here, the impermanence speaks to the larger struggle of people displaced by war and occupation, but also to the ways we leave our mark on places, and how they leave their mark on us — even when we are no longer there.

Artist Bios

Dom Marker

Dom Marker (b. Kharkiv, 1990) is a Ukrainian-American artist, working with photography, video, installation, and text. Born during the collapse of the USSR, Marker emigrated to New York with his parents when he was three years old. He returned to Ukraine shortly after the full-scale invasion in 2022, volunteering on humanitarian missions in frontline regions. He now splits his time between Staten Island and Kyiv.

His emergent artistic practice is embedded in community activism and a post-documentary approach, recently focused on the war in Ukraine. Marker’s work has been exhibited in the US and Europe, and has appeared in publications such as Nothing Left but Healing (Pomegranate Press 2022), and To Hope (Nighted Life 2022). In early 2024, he was selected as a Merit Scholar by the Chico Review.

Organizations

The Alice Austen House

A vibrant cultural center, the Alice Austen House keeps the bold spirit of the early American photographer alive by presenting changing exhibitions of Austen’s pioneering historic photographs and of contemporary photography, providing education programs for students, offering a range of cultural programs for the public.
Photoville

Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.

In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.

By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.

Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.

For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
NYC Parks

NYC Parks is the steward of more than 30,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 basketball courts, 550 tennis courts, 65 public pools, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers, 14 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 600,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.