Faces of War : Alexander Chekmenev

Alexander Chekmenev (b. 1969) has been documenting life in Ukraine since the 1990s. His work has been featured in the New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Guardian, and many other international newspapers and magazines. In Faces of War, he focuses on the lives of the Ukrainian people and the fate of individual members of the population in the face of the Russian war of aggression. With a profound sensitivity, Chekmenev portrays people braving the war as everyday life goes on, working in makeshift soup kitchens, seeking shelter from the ongoing attacks in subway tunnels, or actively trying to help their fellow human beings. These emotive images are taken in the dark; the photographer illuminates the faces and hands of his subjects using only a flashlight. While one can sense the war and its effects in the dark background, the lighting brings to the fore what is most important to the photographer: “For me, the people always come first. The country is made up of people, and I want to make visible each and every one of them and honor them through my photographs” says Alexander Chekmenev.