UKRZALIZNYTSIA – Julie Poly

A delirious nocturne aboard Ukraine’s state railway, UKRZALIZNYTSIA is Julie Poly’s cult photobook of desire, uniform, and transit, first published in 2019 in a small underground edition. Before becoming an artist, Poly worked as a train attendant herself — a fact that saturates every image with insider precision and intuition. Her camera doesn’t document the railway; it rides it like a fever dream, where erotic charge, fatigue, humour and hierarchy jostle in the corridors.

The portraits are sharp and absurd, the mise-en-scène full of Soviet-era patina — metallic walls, peach curtains, mirrored compartments — a visual language Ukrainians often overlook but which, through Poly’s lens, becomes charged with tension and glamour. There is both irony and sincerity here: in the way she poses herself, plays with uniform and identity, and in the haunting presences of young soldiers — barely alert, already braced for a war not yet officially begun. In one frame, they stare past a woman’s presence, dulled by proximity to combat.

What makes this book singular is its origin: it was not made for export or spectacle. The images were first shown inside railway stations, a gesture of public art that felt embedded in everyday life — and deeply Ukrainian in its humour and resilience. Western-minded, unsentimental, radically situated, UKRZALIZNYTSIA stands as one of the most potent works of pre-invasion Ukraine: not just a photo-document, but a living record of how a country sees itself, even in transit.

Technical Sheet
Title: UKRZALIZNYTSIA
Artist / Author: Julie Poly
Date: 2020
Technique / Printing Method: Offset with metallic ink
Medium / Materials: Hardcover
Dimensions (cm): Approx. 21 × 28
Language: Ukrainian, English
Pages: Unnumbered
Publisher / Editor: Self-published
Condition: Near fine