The stories behind Time’s ‘Resilience’ and ‘Agony’ Ukraine covers

Time magazine is out with two covers this morning—one headlined “The Resilience of Ukraine” and the other “The Agony of Ukraine.” The “Resilience” cover features an aerial view of an art installation created by the French artist JR. It’s captioned, “A 148-ft. photo of Valeriia, a 5-year-old Ukrainian refugee, is held up by more than 100 people outside the National Opera in Lviv on March 14.” As Edward Felsenthal, editor-in-chief and CEO of Time, writes in his editor’s letter, Valeriia ... ... comes from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown and, with her mother Taisiia, recently fled to Poland, leaving behind her brother and father. “It was very hard to leave Ukraine, very hard,” Taisiia tells Time in this issue, “but everyone wants to take care of their children.” Felsenthal notes that the street outside Lviv’s National Opera is named Freedom Avenue. Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis. JR is known for his large, temporary outdoor photographic installations. (See also: “Time’s ‘Guns in America’ cover by artist JR was months in the making” and “Street mural of Time’s ‘Guns in America’ cover gets a heartbreaking update,” both from Ad Age in Oct. 2018.) Time Creative Director D.W. Pine this morning shared a 15-second video of the unfurling of JR’s Lviv mural, shot by drone, on Twitter: For this week's @TIME cover artist JR @JRart and his team created a 148-ft. photo of Valeriia, a 5-year-old Ukrainian refugee. The image was held up by more than 100 people outside the National Opera in Lviv on March 14. Read more about Valeriia at https://t.co/YV2FHzscdq pic.twitter.com/knYTgDzWDN— D.W. Pine (@dwpine) March 17, 2022 Time’s “Agony” cover shows a searing image by photojournalist Maxim Dondyuk. It’s captioned: “A Ukrainian soldier helps a mother and her child evacuate the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, which Russian forces have tried to seize as part of their push to encircle the capital.” Dondyuk also contributed a photo essay to the issue titled “A Ukrainian Photographer Documents the Invasion of His Country.” Elsewhere in his letter to readers, Felsenthal writes, This week, the war came home to Time, with the death of Brent Renaud, an award-winning 50-year-old filmmaker who was killed by Russian fire in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin on March 13. Brent had been working on a Time Studios documentary about the global refugee crisis. That crisis now counts among its numbers the 3 million refugees fleeing Ukraine. Brent’s loss is devastating for journalism, compounded days later by the deaths of cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and the Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24. The stories of war would not be possible without journalists like Brent, Pierre, Oleksandra; journalists like Evgeny Sakun and Viktor Dudar, who were killed earlier in the conflict; and like so many others from Ukraine and all over the world, whose work is essential to this critical moment. Keep reading here. Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis.

The stories behind Time’s ‘Resilience’ and ‘Agony’ Ukraine covers

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