Welcome to our home is a reportage that captures the reality of war in Ukraine by taking the audiences to the homes of ordinary people of Kherson. The city fell under Russian control, was recaptured by Ukraine, and as a riverside city it suffered from flood waters of destroyed Kakhovka dam.
Welcome to our home is based on four elements: photogrammetry-based interactive 3D models of three Ukrainian family homes, audio interviews of those family members, a photo story and accompanying text. We decided to tell the story with spatial journalism to highlight the importance of homes as spaces, even in their destroyed states and full of loss. Homes are more than buildings: life revolves around them. They are cherished, taken care of, repaired and renovated with a lot of effort. They bring people together and are also the most private of all places. They can also get destroyed in a matter of seconds in war. Images of destroyed buildings are common in war journalism, but these homes are rarely in focus.
Now these spaces carry marks of war but also memories and details that often get overlooked: an abandoned toy monkey, religious artefacts, school books, and clothes of a daughter who drowned when the flood waters from Kakhovda dam filled the house. The audiences can view these details in the 3D models and listen to audio stories about them in the original language. The whole article and audio subtitles are provided in Finnish, Swedish, English and Ukrainian.
Material for photogrammetry models, interviews and photographs for the photo story were collected in Kherson where explosions were still heard all the time. Spatial storytelling was done with photogrammetry (instead of LiDAR or other techniques) for two reasons: Photography-based workflow allowed for uploading the materials to cloud from the field. Photogrammetry was also found to be the best option for showing small details like toys, posters and fabric patterns. Audio was used to bring authenticity, personality and peoples’ own voice to the story. Text provides the required context and details that couldn’t be photographed. Photo story is about moments and portraits of the people. We think traditional photojournalism was needed to bring balance to the visual storytelling: Human stories told with 3D models alone can feel distant and technical.
