SARASOTA, Fla. — As the war in Ukraine rages on, one local photographer is capturing the images of people and their stories on the front lines.
Allan Mestel, 61, is a Sarasota-based photojournalist and long-time collaborator of Spotlight Ukraine.
According to its website, Spotlight Ukraine is a non-profit with a mission to keep the country in the spotlight and support its people, sovereignty and culture through storytelling, advocacy and fundraising.
"I feel compelled to do it because it is something that has sort of evolved in my own professional experience," Mestel said.
Mestel, a photographer for several decades, said the images he photographs tell countless stories. He has taken four trips to Ukraine, capturing history in real-time and the impacts of war on everyday people in the country.
"I find myself drawn to situations where people are going through these crises my photos represent a part of the experience that is not being represented," he said.
Along with capturing what it looks like for the displaced residents, Mestel is documenting scenes and stories from the soldiers on the battlefield.
"This is the inside of a self-propelled tank, a self-propelled artillery gun. This was kind of cool. This was a mortar unit that was firing from the front line into supporting troops or fighting in the forest," he said describing some of the photos.
While Mestel said his motivation is the human experience, he also sees his work and the war in Ukraine as part of a fight to save democracy in that part of the world.
"Human rights do not exist in Russia today. No freedom of the press, any descent is squashed violently and here we're giving a few billion dollars to a country that is standing up against what has been historically, if you look at the Cold War, the West's greatest geopolitical foe," Mestel said. "Would you want to send American money or American troops? Because, ultimately, that's what I think the choice is."
With more than 400 printed photos and many published, he is hoping to keep making a difference, one picture at a time.
"I just have to do whatever it is I can. I don't have any illusions that somehow, you know, I'll have any major impact on the way that this war is perceived in the United States or certainly the outcome of the war, but as long as I do what I can, I sleep well at night," Mestel said.
You can learn more about Mestel's work and his Unsung Heroes Blog series from the front lines of the Ukraine war.