A PHOTOGRAPHER who spent six years documenting life in Europe's only active warzone has brought a new exhibition to Bradford.

In his first solo show at Impressions Gallery, Christopher Nunn has captured a rare glimpse of everyday life during conflict in the far Eastern region of Ukraine.

The project, Borderland: Stories from Donbas, was unexpected after travelling to Kalush to learn more about his grandmother who arrived in the North of England as a displaced person after the second world war.

He was still in the country when the Ukraine revolution broke out in 2014 and later, the war.

War is not about "constantly fighting", he says - a key message in photos which capture skinny dipping in the summertime, eighth birthday parties and a woman walking her cat.

The photographer said: "It's too easy to see things like soldiers and the usual imagery of conflict but that's not all there is.

"We are desensitised to everything now. It might shock us for a little bit.

"This is one perspective of this whole thing.

"It's not just constantly fighting. There's a lot of calm, a lot of times nothing is happening.

"Unless there's actual battles going on, things just seem normal. It becomes normal."

But this is not painting a false picture of warzone life with many poignant stories to be shared about the faces of Donbas.

Using social media and his friends' connections, Nunn ventured around the region and photographed Elena and Ala in the kitchen.

Taken in February 2017, the two friends gathered round for the shot. Just hours after it was taken, Elena was killed by shelling in the same room.

Nunn cares about people’s stories and how Donbas is represented. He was drawn to the small mining settlements where families relax by overgrown riversides, cramped apartment block kitchens, village bars and fading towns now on the doorstep of war at the very edge of Europe. Nunn presents themes including the dynamics of families; masculinity of young men and fathers; freedom and togetherness, and seemingly inescapable ties with history.

Anne McNeill, Impressions Gallery director and curator of the show, says “Nunn’s photographs are the antidote to traditional photojournalism, and Western media’s usual representation of the conflict. What began as a personal project on memory and belonging has grown into an extensive body of work about the way people think and act with regards to their country, their collective identity, and history in a time of flux.”