Shocking works of a Ukrainian photographer who lived in a psychiatric hospital

Ukrainian photographer Stepan Rudik, with the permission of the management, lived for some time in a hospital for the mentally ill and took a different look at those who are being held there.

Stepan Rudik was born on December 6, 1982 in Izmail (Odessa region). Graduated from the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts with a degree in photography. Shoots reports, portraits, genre photography. Member of the Unions of photo artists of Ukraine and Russia. Winner of the Grand Prix of international competitions, scholarship holder of the National Polish Cultural Center Gaude Polonia in 2010.

I didn't have any special problems with the wards. I immediately made friends with a patient of my age, he was almost constantly with me as a security guard.

At first, however, everyone shied away from me, but on the second day they began to get used to both me and the camera.

At some point, you begin to doubt your own normality, but I had a camera, and it became my bridge to the familiar world. It's just amazing, some small piece of metal with glass, and what an effect!

For me, the principle of documentary shooting is non-interference in what is happening, observation without directing, although a person with a camera simply changes reality by his appearance.

Of course, it was scary to stay overnight in the ward with patients (I wanted to immerse myself in the topic as much as possible) and it was even scarier to wake up.

I remember when I woke up, the first thing I saw was how the patient was mopping the walls.

In no way did I want to humiliate the dignity of a person with my pictures, and I had no goal to show the conditions in which patients are and live. "Others" is an observation project.

When we see one of those that are hidden by civilized countries in clinics for the mentally ill, we look down on him. We think that this will never happen to us. We hide behind our own ignorance and indifference.

This psychiatric clinic is located in a former NKVD prison. Behind it is the only maternity hospital in the city with a population of one hundred thousand; next to it is a hospital, to the right of it is the city executive committee; to the left is a prison, also the only one in the city. And in the center of this triangle is her.

I don't want to tell the stories of patients and the reasons why they are there — it's their personal. We must not forget that the photographer is responsible for every millimeter in his photo. I can only say that today more than half of the patients I photographed have been dead for a long time (the project was filmed in 2006. - Ed.).