--- title: When Analog meets Digital: Videos from a Ukraine Viewfinder description: "Views from my Bellybutton" is a side-project by Ukraine-based VII photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind. Her video portraits of Ukraine protesters are the result of Taylor-Lind mounting an iPhone onto her Hasselblad camera -- giving us a unique view of her working process canonical: https://time.com/3807680/ukraine-iphone-videos-instagram/ author: Richard Conway article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-10T18:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:00:04.431Z article:section: World og:title: When Analog meets Digital: Videos from a Ukraine Viewfinder og:description: "Views from my Bellybutton" is a side-project by Ukraine-based VII photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind. Her video portraits of Ukraine protesters are the result of Taylor-Lind mounting an iPhone onto her Hasselblad camera -- giving us a unique view of her working process og:url: https://time.com/3807680/ukraine-iphone-videos-instagram/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf76703484423b6e3/6987e652cd1bbafa986f8706/atl1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: atl1.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: When Analog meets Digital: Videos from a Ukraine Viewfinder twitter:description: "Views from my Bellybutton" is a side-project by Ukraine-based VII photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind. Her video portraits of Ukraine protesters are the result of Taylor-Lind mounting an iPhone onto her Hasselblad camera -- giving us a unique view of her working process twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf76703484423b6e3/6987e652cd1bbafa986f8706/atl1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # iPhone Meets Hasselblad: Analog and Digital Unite in Ukraine by [Richard Conway](/author/richard-conway/) ## Richard Conway Mar 10, 2014 6:00 PM CUT  Anastasia Taylor-Lind by [Richard Conway](/author/richard-conway/) ## Richard Conway Mar 10, 2014 6:00 PM CUT **_The above image shows a viewfinder video portrait of a man called Oleskiy by the barricades of Hrushevskoho street. Feb. 27, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine._** --- _LightBox put together this post on Anastasia Taylor-Lind’s protester portraits_ _before clashes between anti-government protesters and police in Kiev left over 70 people dead, and before the now_ [_ongoing crisis in Crimea_](http://time.com/16708/watch-timeline-of-the-crisis-in-crimea/ "undefined")_. The_ _anti-government demonstrations — which had_ _focused on Maidan Nezalezhnosti_, _the Ukrainian name for Kiev’s Independence Square_ _– began late last year when President Yanukovych backed away from a European trade and political deal_ _in favor of closer ties with Russia_ _._ _Since our Feb. 6, 2014 interview with Taylor-Lind, the_ _protest movement_ _has overthrown President Yanukovych and_ _the opposition has_ _set up an interim government. During the unrest, Taylor-Lind stopped her iPhone portrait series and went on assignment for a German newspaper. She started the project again afterwards. And while the newer videos may look very similar to those that came before, “this time,” Taylor-Lind says, “Kiev was in mourning.”_ --- These images look a bit like something you’d see on an early 20th-century [mutoscope](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutoscope "undefined"), but the videos featured in _Views From My Belly Button_ — an ongoing Instagram project by photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind — probably couldn’t be more timely. The video portraits were taken on the fringes of the Maidan anti-government protest camp in Kiev, and are the result of the photographer mounting an iPhone on her Hasselblad camera via the use of an elaborately constructed arm, and then filming what she sees through the viewfinder. **_A viewfinder video portrait of Igor, 29, from Lviv._** **_The above image shows a viewfinder video portrait of a man named Ivan._** **_The above image shows a viewfinder video portrait of a Maidan protester._** Most of the videos focus on anti-government protesters based in the Hrushevskoho Street area of Kiev. They are just short vignettes, and evolve as her series progresses. “There was a lot of trial and error,” Taylor-Lind, whose assistant built the iPhone arm using parts of a Manfrotto tripod, tells TIME. “We’ve adapted it a few times as we figure out better ways to make it work.” **_The above image shows a viewfinder video portrait of anti-government protesters singing the Ukranian national anthem_** For Taylor-Lind, the series is not just an aspect of her principal photography work; it is a new form of work in itself. “I asked questions like, how can I bring my audience with me?” she says. “I thought about what I could add to those conventional images, the so-called ‘real images’ that I make.” **_Taylor-Lind’s is seen posing with a protestor in her makeshift Kiev studio._** **_Taylor-Lind’s iPhone is seen mounted to her camera. She uses a Bronica and a Hasselblad._** “I now realize the world looks quite different through the ground glass of my 6×6 cameras,” she adds. “I think social media is really exciting, and I am even more excited about discovering new ways that we can use it to enhance the stories we tell.” --- **_Anastasia Taylor-Lind_** _is a photographer with VII. See more videos from_ Views from my Belly Button[_here_](http://instagram.com/anastasiatl# "undefined")_. Her book_ [**MAIDAN – Portraits from the Black Square**](http://www.gostbooks.com/books/44/maidan-portraits-from-the-black-square "undefined") is out now. _Taylor-Lind is also working on a long-term documentary project called_ [Negative Zero](https://www.facebook.com/negativezeroproject "undefined")_, about Europe’s declining populations._ **_Richard Conway_** _is Reporter/Producer for TIME LightBox. Follow him on twitter_ [_@RichardJConway_](https://twitter.com/RichardJConway "undefined") --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3807680/ukraine-iphone-videos-instagram/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3807680/ukraine-iphone-videos-instagram/"},"headline":"iPhone Meets Hasselblad: Analog and Digital Unite in Ukraine","datePublished":"2014-03-10T18:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:00:04.431Z","description":"\"Views from my Bellybutton\" is a side-project by Ukraine-based VII photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind. 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