Jon Farina

Independent photo and video journalist from Brooklyn, New York. 32 years old. Covered many important stories in US during 2020 and 2021. Mostly known for my coverage at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 where I was live streaming on YouTube to 30,000 viewers for an outlet called Status Coup News. My footage from that day was seen by millions all over the world. By the winter of 2021, work was slow and it became extremely difficult to support myself in New York City as a freelancer. So I left my apartment and decided to go live in the forest in Pennsylvania. Got a job working at a ski resort for a few months. Then when Russia invaded Ukraine and a full on war broke out, I decided go to Ukraine to document. I flew into Hungary, then took a 15 hour train ride from Budapest to Lviv where I met 2 other journalists that I know from the states. We traveled to many cities in the country such as Kremenchuk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Poltava, Kyiv and Kharkiv. In Kharkiv is where we split and I was on my own. I was introduced to a group of volunteers who lived in the most dangerous district in the city that was under constant bombardment. I decided to go and live with them to document their lives and tell their story.