Alexander Chekmenev

exander 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.