Alexander Chekmenev. Born 1969, Luhansk, eastern Ukraine.
Chekmenev started his career in 1988 as an apprentice photographer in a studio in his home city of Luhansk. In search of his own style, he began photographing people on the streets and in their homes to show the devastating effects of the economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In particular, his work gave an intimate and unique perspective on the turmoil caused to the Donbas mining industry as Ukraine underwent significant social and political upheaval. He moved to Kyiv in 1997, where he still works today as a photojournalist, using the medium to document the progress made and the challenges faced by his country and its people through peacetime, revolutions and war.
Chekmenev's work has been published in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, TIME LightBox, New Yorker Photo Booth, Quartz Magazine, The Guardian, Vice Magazine, WIRED Magazine and The Atlantic Magazin, THE TIMES Magazine and The Sunday Times.
A portrait of President Volodymyr Zelensky taken in April 2022 for the cover of TIME magazine was sold for 150,000 euros on December 15, 2022, at the Forbes Ukraine charity auction in Kyiv. All of the money was donated to charity to buy generators for children's institutions damaged under Russian occupation. Another copy of the Zelensky portrait was sold at auction on November 22, 2023, for $150,000 as part of a campaign by Ukrainska Pravda. All of the money raised went to support the Air Command "Skhid" air defense unit in eastern Ukraine.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Oregon, USA
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany
Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten, Germany
Museum of Kharkiv School of Photography, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Mystetskiy Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine
BOOKS
2011 Donbass, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg Berlin, Germany
2017 Passport, Dewi Lewis Publishing, Stockport, UK
2020 Lilies, Museum of Kharkiv School of Photography, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2021 Pharmakon, 89books, Palermo, Italy
2024 Faces of War, Kerber Verlag, Berlin, Germany
2024 Luhansk 1994-1998, 89books, Palermo, Italy
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2001 Photo on Passport, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznan, Poland
2007 Black and white photography, Yagalereya Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2012 Donbas, Gallery Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany
2014 Mad World, Gallery Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany
2015 Donbas, Palffy Palace, Bratislava, Slovakia
2016 Passport and Donbas, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, US
2017 Passport, Folia Gallery, Paris, France
2019 Photo on Passport, Kyiv History Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine
2020 Forgotten Land, Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre, Klaipeda, Lithuania
2022 Faces of War, Hoogsteder Museum Foundation, Hague, Netherlands
2022 Citizens of Kyiv, Gallery Omnius, Arles, France
2022 Citizens of Kyiv, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, US
2023 Facets of Resistance and Resilience, Gallery Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany
2023 Citizens of Kyiv, Artinbox Gallery, Prague, Czechia
2023 Citizens of Kyiv, De Studio, Antwerp, Belgium
2024 Donbas - Photographic memories since 1994, Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2000 Passport, European competition of documentary photography Image Vevey, Vevey, Switzerland
2008 4x4. Ukrainian Contemporary Photography, House of Photography, Vilnius, Lithuania
2010 Donbas, Third Festival of Documentary Photographs, Poznan, Poland
2012 Sensitivity, First Kyiv Biennale of Contemporary Art Arsenal 2012, Mystetskiy Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine
2013 The look behind, Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten, Germany
2014 I’m Drop in the Ocean – Art of the Ukrainian Revolution, Vienna Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
2014 Shift: Ukraine in Crisis, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, UK
2014 Euromaidan: our own story, 8 bit Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2016 Deformation, Suwon Photo Festival, Suwon, South Korea
2017 Anonymous Society, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine
2018 Passport, Image Singulieres, Sète, France
2018 Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian Art Today, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2018 From ascent and descent, Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten, Germany
2018 A Space of One's Own, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine
2019 Euromaidan, Suwon Photo Festival, Suwon, South Korea
2019 Between Fire and Fire: Ukrainian Art Now, Semperdepot, Vienna, Austria
2019 Deleted, Grenoble Photomonth, Grenoble, France
2019 Transit, Odesa Photo Days 2019. State Literature Museum, Odesa, Ukraine
2021 Sensitivity, Mystetskiy Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, Kyiv, Ukraine
2022 Focus Ukraine, Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
2022 The New Abnormal, PHOXXI Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
2022 Ukraine. The Pass to Freedom, Noorderlicht Photography Foundation, Groningen, Netherlands
2023 Home. Perspectives, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2023 Сoncentration of will M17 Contemporary Art Center, Kyiv, Ukraine
2024 Generations of Resilience, Hangar Photo Art Center, Brussels, Belgium
2024 Home, Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, UK
2024 Photography Noir. Existence, Galerie K’, Bremen, Germany
2024 Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words, Edinburgh Art Festival, Centre for Photography, Edinburgh
2025 EMOP Berlin - European Month of Photography, Brotfabrik Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2025 Ukraine Photography Exhibition, UK Parliament, London, UK
2025 The Rest is Art History. A Selection of the Best-Known Works from the Collection of the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary, Ludwig Museum
2025 Gathering, A Photographer's Collection. Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery, Oregon, USA