Main image: Dmitro Milyutin
The thirty-third interview through images by Andrey Sheptunov
As part of the special column "Silver and Steel: Documentarians of Our Time," we continue to introduce you to authors who capture the nerve of the era through their lenses. Silver here is a tribute to photographic tradition, light, and the refinement of art. Steel is a symbol of the times, of character, and the reality in which we are destined to live. The heroes of this column are Odessan and Ukrainian photographers whose images become not just visual documents, but an emotional chronicle of our resistance.
Dmitro Milyutin is a man with a unique optic. In peaceful times, he is known as a talented perfumer, creating complex, multilayered olfactory compositions. However, the war has sharpened not only his sense of smell but also his vision, turning his camera into an instrument for searching for meaning. In his frames, light, shadow, geometry, and raw emotion take the place of top and base fragrance notes.
His connection to Odessa is unbreakable. For Milyutin, the city is not just a shooting location, but a living organism with its own breath, storms, and architectural memory. In his work, Odessa appears genuine: from the crushing power of the winter Black Sea to the intimate silence of old courtyards, where every surviving bas-relief seems to be a symbol of eternity.
The photographer's creative method intersects significantly with his perfumery experience. He knows that the essence is always hidden in the details and the aftertaste. His photographs are a classic Camera Lucida, that very "light room" of Roland Barthes, where photography doesn't merely capture an object, but strikes a chord with the viewer, making them feel. Dmitro masterfully finds the point of the "punctum" — that specific detail that pierces through and makes a frame unforgettable.
Since 2014, and especially with the onset of the full-scale invasion, Milyutin's art has been complemented by active volunteering. This work has become not only a civic duty for him but an internal anchor. Helping the front lines and interacting with the military, he sees with his own eyes the steel that today protects the fragile silver of peaceful life.
A special place in his lens is reserved for female beauty. For Dmitro, this is not just an aesthetic category, but a powerful weapon of creation. In his frames, refinement paradoxically merges with absolute, unyielding strength, proving that life, love, and beauty are capable of conquering any darkness.
In this interview, we decided to step away from the classic text format. We asked Dmitro questions about his internal anchor, his beloved city, and his belief in victory. But instead of thousands of words, he answered us with his works — honest and piercing.
1. Show us a place in Odessa where you currently feel in absolute safety and harmony.
2. An item from your volunteer activities that has become a personal talisman or a symbol of resilience for you.
The flag of Ukraine has been with me since the beginning of the war, since 2014. A photo from the first days of the full-scale invasion. On homemade welded hedgehog anti-tank obstacles.
3. In one of your interviews, you said: "With a fragrance, you capture the territory around you." Which shot best conveys this phrase?
This is a photo of the perfume from the "Alye Parusa" (Scarlet Sails) factory (Mykolaiv), called "Brigantine." In my opinion, it conveys the magnetism and passion for the amber, aromatic contents of the hand-polished 1980s bottle.
4. A detail of old Odessa (a bas-relief, a courtyard, a balcony) that inspires you to create new perfume compositions.
The heart of my beloved city... it is precisely in this photo that the love, passion, and yet, the romanticism of all my perfumery ideas resides...
5. Your absolute favorite perfume ingredient or bottle, captured as if it were a rare artifact.
If we are to talk about a favorite fragrance and bottle, there is no better candidate... The Holy Grail of refinement, aristocracy, and the subtlety of the female nature, collected in this vessel, is impossible to overstate. I suppose I will never change my opinion of it... A rarity!!!
6. Show the very coziness and peace for which we are all fighting right now.
7. What does that female beauty, which, in your opinion, is stronger than any war, look like?
8. An Odessan woman's smile or gaze capable of melting the ice and instilling hope — how do you see this?
9. Show a combination of absolute femininity and unyielding inner strength in a single frame.
10. How does the "scent" of the Black Sea after a severe winter storm look through the lens?
This shot was taken the day after the most powerful storm in the last few years... It left no trace, except for large puddles on the pier and the smell of mussels and rapa whelks washed ashore, as well as the sweetness of the approaching sunny day after long stormy days.
11. A photo-association with a woman who is your main motivator not to give up.
An image that one limitlessly wants to embody over and over again.
12. A frame conveying the gratitude and strength you receive from our defenders while helping the army.
Dmitro Milyutin's shots are more than just frozen moments. They are a kind of concentrate of our current reality, where the smell of a stormy sea mixes with the aroma of vintage perfumes, and the cold steel of anti-tank hedgehogs retreats before a soft yet indestructible female strength.
Through his unique optic, Dmitro proves that art in Odessa is not put on pause even in the darkest of times. It becomes yet another front — aesthetic and spiritual.
Every such photograph, every preserved emotion makes the cultural foundation of the city only stronger. Milyutin doesn't merely document history; he creates around himself that very territory of light which inevitably drives out the darkness.
You can continue to follow how Dmitro documents our era, creates new olfactory masterpieces, and helps bring victory closer on his personal pages:
