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.
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, The Atlantic Magazine.
On December 15, 2022, at the Forbes Ukraine charity auction in Kyiv, a portrait of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made in April 2022 for the cover of "TIME" magazine was sold for 150,000 €. All the money was donated to charity to buy generators for children's institutions that suffered during the occupation by Russian aggressors.
On November 22, 2023, the portrait of Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the cover of TIME was sold for about 150,000 $. The auction was held as part of a campaign by Ukrayinska Pravda. All funds from the sale went to support the Air Defense System, which protects the Ukrainian sky from Sumy to the Sea of Azov.
Museums:
2024 - several prints from the "Donbass" series Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Germany.
2023 - 2 prints from series "Citizens of Kyiv" in Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.
2023 - 36 prints from "Citizens of Kyiv" and "Faces of War" series, MOKSOP Museum, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
2022 - 1 platinum palladium print “Zelensky” in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (NL).
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:
2024 Group exhibition Galerie K' in Bremen, Germany, series "Donbass".
2024 Personal exhibition Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Germany, series "Odessa", "Passport", "Donbass".
2024 Group exhibition Open Eye Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom.
2024 Group exhibition HANGAR Photo Art Center "Citizens of Kyiv”, "Passport", Brussels, Belgium.
2023 Personal exhibition "Clara Maria Sels" gallery, Duesseldorf, Germany.
2023 Group exhibition in Open Eye Gallery, series "Citizens of Kyiv" and "Passport", Liverpool, UK.
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", 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".