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

 

Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten, Germany

Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 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

 

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
          Citizens of Kyiv, Gallery Omnius, Arles, France

          Citizens of Kyiv, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, US

2023 Facets of Resistance and Resilience, Gallery Clara Maria Sels,
         Düsseldorf, Germany

         Citizens of Kyiv, Artinbox Gallery, Prague, Czechia

         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

         Shift: Ukraine in Crisis, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, UK
         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

         Permanent Revolution. Ukrainian Art Today, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary 

          From ascent and descent, Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten, Germany

          A Space of One's Own, PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine

2019 Euromaidan, Suwon Photo Festival, Suwon, South Korea

          Between Fire and Fire: Ukrainian Art Now, Semperdepot, Vienna, Austria

         Deleted, Grenoble Photomonth, Grenoble, France

         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

         The New Abnormal, PHOXXI Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

          Ukraine. The Pass to Freedom, Noorderlicht Photography Foundation,

         Groningen, Netherlands

2023 Home. Perspectives, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK

2024 Generations of Resilience, Hangar Photo Art Center, Brussels, Belgium

         Home, Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, UK

         Photography Noir. Existence, Galerie K’, Bremen, Germany

2024 "Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words" Edinburgh Art Festival, 

         Centre for Photography, Edinburgh

achekmenev@gmail.com