This photo project became my way of making sense of what I have experienced, preserving the memory of those we have lost, and speaking about collective trauma and human resilience. The foundation of the project is photographs of flowers that people placed along roads to honor fallen hero-warriors, as well as scans of dried flowers that I preserved in old Soviet books — these books add context, reminding us of a historical past that still weighs upon us.

Some photos or scans may reflect personal stories from the past or the present.

Dead flowers became the central metaphor of the project. They symbolize mourning for the lost but also hope that their sacrifice was not in vain. These are the blossoms of the nation — the legacy left by the best of us, reminding us of the power of memory and the importance of human resilience.