Ohio Army vet’s journey documenting war in Ukraine | 2023
Channel: Matt Blinn
Date: 2022-12-30

For most of us, the war in Ukraine is a world away. For Army veteran and photojournalist Ed Zirkle, he needed to go there and find out for himself. Zirkle has almost seen it all in his 75 years on Earth.
“So I ended up going all around the country and seeing every place that people would show me around,” he said.Seeing the Ukraine war up close was a personal assignment for the man who took pictures for the Army as part of the criminal investigative unit at Fort Bragg.“Gave me a real boots-on-the-ground experience of what was going on,” Zirkle said. A retired freelance photographer, he decided to meet up with fellow Rotarians in Kiev. “Air raid sirens would be going off and people wouldn’t even blink, just go about their business and do what needed to be done,” Zirkle said. He stayed for three weeks, traveling and sleeping in a train car.

About Matt Blinn: 
I am an Emmy-winning storyteller with more than a decade of leadership and ownership of departments pushing creative boundaries that produce engaging video content for every kind of platform. I manage people, build relationships, and lead teams to buy into project vision and scope so that ownership produces outstanding creative results. With a Bachelor of Art and Science degree from Bowling Green State University, I am fueled by a strong art and design ethos.