Jenn Blatty, photographer, writer and documentarian covers the war in Ukraine

                      

 
    Jenn Blatty, on a recent visit to West Point, where she was a tennis and boxing champion.

Jenn Blatty served six years as an officer in the Unite States Army. She was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. She had for many years been drawn to capturing life with disposable cameras, pen and notebook so she took up photography and writing as a career after completing her service to the military. In early 2018 she began a project that took her back to the front line, this time with a camera and recorder. She went to the Donbas region of Ukraine where she found members, past and present, of the volunteer army fighting the Russians. 

"When we finished our tour of duty in another land we were sent home to address the physical and mental trauma of our experience. But Ukraine’s soldiers and veterans face an inescapable reality, fighting a war on their own land, making a transition to the “peace-life” nearly impossible with the uncertainty of another invasion and no end to the war in sight." 

"What makes you continue going back to Ukraine," I asked. 

"War-fighters around the world share a commonality that transcends the boundaries of nation and conflict, and I’m dedicated not only to archive the faces and stories of these fighters, but also to tell the story about the ongoing war in the Donbas, about those who continue to fight it, and about Ukraine's status as a country fighting for its independence, in the middle of Europe, in the 21st century."

And then she added: "Here is another reason for my returning at frequent intervals—the love of my life is one of the volunteer fighters. We speak neither of each other's language but rely on Google Translate to communicate." 

An exhibition of Jenn's work will be displayed at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City in January 2020, in addition to other locations throughout the United States. 

See Jenn's (J.T.) work on www.jtblatty.com 

Waiting for a table at Ocean House, Croton-on-Hudson

                  Waiting for a table at Ocean House, Croton-on-Hudson.

Yesterday was my 87th birthday and Betsy took us to dinner here last night. Caroline parked the car in a nearby street and by mistake locked the steering. I tried to free it but failed. We told Paula, the co-owner, about it and she said, "Wait a minute, I'll tell Brian, he knows about these things." Brian is her husband and the chef.  It was an extremely busy night and I was not sure what he was going to be able to do to help us, but dropping everything in the kitchen, he asked Caroline for the key and where the car was. Caroline followed him out, and through the window, in roughly the time it takes to select a fish and put it on the grill, we saw them striding back waving and smiling.

Later in the evening the lights went out and a waitress with a single candle in a sorbet made her way to our table together with Paula and the other waitresses. They sang Happy Birthday; the rest of the house joined in. I then got up and asked the guests if I cold tell them what had happened to the car and how Brian, the chef, was not only a wonderful cook. Lots of clapping and people asking how old I was. I was much moved.

While all this was going I noticed the couple at the bar. I did not have my camera with me but these days there is no shortage of cameras to be had at the stretching of an arm. This is the first photograph I have posted using an iphone. I shall be taking all my life going pictures on one in the future.

       

This is Romain, whose uncle recently gave him several suits that he'd had made in the 1960s. The one that Romain is wearing in this picture is a Pierre Cardin made in Paris.

However hot it was, his uncle probably never wore any of his suits without a shirt, but Romain has his own style. The miniature on the chain around his neck is a portrait of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.