add to calendaradd to calendarThe origins of documentary photography are strongly tied to the manifestation of events, places,and phenomena hidden from the public eye. However, photographs that appeared as social reportageor anthropological intelligence have subsequently falleninto the field of art and ended up in museum collections. Sometimes that took decades to happen. We will talk about the professional focus of the photographer Oleksandr Chekmenyov and, in particular, the series of photographs he took atthe Ovruch Psychiatric Hospital in the late 90s. Finally, how do publicationsand photographers deal with such complex topics? Is there such a genre as a social portrait? Why are photographers still working withan analogue medium – photographic film – in the digital age?
moderator, PhD in Philological sciences, editor-in-chief at Korydor online magazine about contemporary culture,journalist, critic
Vira is currently getting a degree in cultural management from the Jagiellonian University (Kraków). Winner of the Women in Arts Award founded by the Ukrainian Institute and UN Women Ukraine in the category of Criticism, Cultural Journalism and Research
photographer
Oleksandr was born in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. He started his career as a photographer in asmalllocal photo studio in his hometown: in his spare time, Oleksandr took photos of people affected by the economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His works represent an insider’s look at the transformation of the mining region in the 1990s. Chekmeniov’s photographic series have been published on the New York Times’ Lens blog, Time’s Lightbox, the New Yorker’s Photo Booth, MSNBC, Quartzand other publications.
Selected personal projects: exhibition in Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, USA, the Donbassand Passportseries (2016); exhibition in the Palffy Palace gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia, the Donbassseries (2015); exhibition in the Clara Maria Sels gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany, the Mad Worldseries (2014).
