Photo: Courtesy of Ed Quinn / Instagram @edquinnphoto
WINCHESTER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A photojournalist from Winchester has just returned from his trip overseas to Ukraine and Poland, and is sharing his experience and work capturing the lives of citizens surviving in the war-torn areas.
Ed Quinn originally traveled to Poland to cover a refugee center there, but he ended up on a humanitarian mission, serving over 9,000 meals to people still living in Ukraine.
"We drove through the night, served all day, and then drove back the next night- we were up for 35 hours or so. The scope and the scale of the suffering is enormous," Quinn told WBZ's Suzanne Sausville.
Quinn took hundreds of photos while abroad, uploading many to his Instagram page: @edquinnphoto. While there, Quinn says he met a chef named Alessio who was feeding Ukrainians hot meals while air raid sirens blared overhead. Alessio, an Italian chef based in Krakow, had been preparing large meals that he delivered to refugees in Lviv, Ukraine once a week, Quinn said.
One photo depicts a mother and daughter duo who had recently been displaced by the war.
"Their home in Donbas was bombed just two days before and artillery rounds had shredded a large portion of the building, killing children in the apartment building. They were traumatized. That's when they left and came through Lviv, without any definite plans on where to go next," Quinn said.
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When crossing the Polish/Ukrainian border at night, Quinn said he felt uneasy.
"There's tension at the border- of course they're concerned about Russian spies, which there are many, and any illegal material for the Russian war effort coming in on trucks. So every truck is carefully searched," Quinn said.
The photojournalist says he's not done either. He wants to return to Ukraine to provide hospital workers there with flak jackets and helmets, which Quinn says are in high demand.
WBZ's Suzanne Sausville (@wbzSausville) reports.
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