ABOUT
Alexander Chekmenev was born in Luhansk, the city located in Eastern Ukraine, Donbass. Alexander started his career as a photographer in a small photo studio in his home town. On the free of work time he photographed people on the streets and homes, who were effected the most by economical crisis after Soviet Union collapse. HIs work give an intimate and unique insider view on transition of coal mining region in 90-s in Eastern Ukraine. He moved to Kyiv in 1997, where he works as photojournalist.
His work has been published in The New York Times and New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine and TIME Light Box, New Yorker Photo Booth, Quartz, The Guardian, Vice Magazine, WIRED Magazine, Liberation.
2014 - Grand Prix "Photographer of the Year of Ukraine 2013".
December 15, 2022, at the Forbes Ukraine charity auction in Kyiv the portrait of President Volodymyr Zelensky by Alexander Chekmenev taken for the cover of TIME magazine was sold for 150 000 $. All the money was sent to charity to purchase generators for children's institutions that suffered during the occupation by the russian aggressors.
Museums:
2023 - 2 prints from series "Citizens of Kyiv" in Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.
2022 - 1 platinum palladium print “Zelensky” in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (NL).
2020 - 334 prints from various series were purchased by MOKSOP Museum, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
2019 - 15 prints from the Passport series were purchased by the Ludwig Museum, Germany.
2018 - 12 prints from the Passport series were purchased by the "Mystetskyi Arsenal" Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2018 - 2 prints from the Donbass series were purchased by the "Märkisches Museum Witten", Germany.
Exhibitions:
2023 Personal exhibition series "Donbass", "Passport", "Citizens of Kyiv", "Deleted", Pullach i. Isartal, Germany.
2022 Group exhibition “Ukraine. The Pass to Freedom”, series "Passport", Groningen, Netherlands.
2022 Group exhibition PHOXXI, series "Citizens of Kyiv", the temporary House of Photography of Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany.
Personal charitable exhibition Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, USA. series "Citizens of Kyiv".
2022 Personal exhibition "Citizens of Kyiv", Arles, France.
2022 Group exhibition "Focus Ukraine" Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, Germany.
2022 Personal exhibition „Faces of War“, Hoogsteder Museum Foundation, Hague, Netherlands.
2020 Personal exhibition „Forgotten Land“, Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre, Lithuania.
2019 Group exhibition La Maison de l’Image, Grenoble, France, series "Deleted".
2019 Group exhibition “Transit”, State Litarature Museum, Odesa, Ukraine.
2019Group exhibition Suwon, South Corea, "Suwon Photo", series "Euromaidan".
Group exhibition Kyiv, Ukraine, PinchukArtCentre, A Space of One's Own series "Winners".
Museum "Märkisches Museum Witten", Germany, series "Donbass".
Group exhibition, series "Passport", Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary.
2018 Group exhibition Image Singulieres, Sete, France, series "Passport".
Personal exhibition Folia Gallery, Paris, France. series "Passport".
Group exhibition Kyiv, Ukraine, PinchukArtCentre, series "Passport".
Personal exhibition Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, USA. series "Donbass", "Passport".
Group exhibition Suwon, South Corea, "Suwon Photo", series "War in Donbass".
Personal exhibition in gallery "Palffy Palace", Bratislava, Slovakia, series "Donbass".
Group exhibition The Side Gallery Newcastle, UK "LEGACY Series Warriors.
Group exhibition Vienna Künstlerhaus series Warriors.
Group Exhibition Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, UK. series Warriors.
Personal exhibition gallery "Clara Maria Sels", Duesseldorf, Germany, series "Mad World".
Grand Prix "Photographer of the Year of Ukraine 2013".
Museum "Märkisches Museum Witten", Germany, series "Donbass".
First Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art "Arsenal 2012", series "Winners".
Personal exhibition "Clara Maria Sels" gallery, Duesseldorf, Germany, series "Donbass".
Group exhibition 3rd Festival of documentary photographs", Poznan, Warsaw, Poland,series "Donbass".
Group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Perm series "Donbass".
Group exhibition "4on4. Ukrainian Contemporary Photography" House of Photography, Vilnius.
Personal exhibition in gallery "Yagalereya", Kyiv, series "Black and White".
Personal exhibition in gallery "Zamek", Poznan, Poland, series: "Passport", "Lilies", "Blind", "Easter", "Portraits", "Miners".
Personal exhibition in gallery in Poprad, Slovakia, series: "Passport" and "Lilies".
Winner of the European competition of documentary photography Vevey, Switzerland for the series "Ukrainian passport".
1st prize "Ukrpressphoto", Kyiv, Ukraine, category "New Names".