BIO
Initially interest in travel led me to the decision to become a seafarer, and I pursued this path by completing my master's degree in navigation at the Odessa National Maritime Academy.
During my second year at the academy, I discovered a passion for visual art and spent years learning, archiving, documenting, and photographing.
From 2012 to 2020, I worked in the merchant navy as a maritime officer, combining it with photographic endeavours and retouching.
In 2023, I fled Ukraine and am currently working on predominantly personal projects.
Member of Kyiv Lodge - group of artists and researchers.
LENS OF INNOCENCE
November 12th, 54 Rue Jacob, Paris. Lens of Innocence group show.
24 young artists from Ukraine, US, Germany, France and UK reunited for exposition and charity sales for kids in Ukraine.
The goal is to raise funds for the construction of a shelter for the school in the village of Korolivka, Makariv district, Kyiv region. Due to absence of bomb shelter, kids of Korolivka, Kyiv region, are deprived from going to school, getting a higher quality of education or just simply hanging out with friends and running around the school yard.
LEARN MORE
THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION
The idea of the project was to research into (the representation of) violence in visual art, film, poetry, sex, and academia. All of us in the team feel strongly about many of the above, so we were extremely excited to get the project going. We were sick of social media’s ridiculous content policing and wanted to address extreme practices and imagery usually labeled as “sensitive content” or blocked outright.
We believed that by looking at the specificities of violence, we actually could take a few steps towards imagining (and creating) a world without it (which is, of course, impossible without familiarity with what it is and which forms it can take). We also shared the idea that “empathy emerges as a capacity of imaginative embodiment,” ( 1 ) where “embodiment” means that our minds are embodied, that we think via sensorimotor experiences. You know, cognition is what happens when the body meets the world, and all that.
LEARN MORE
FEB 24TH
This series shows people sheltering in Kiev metro on the first day of war.
It was five in the morning on February 24th when Kyiv woke up from explosions — Russia commenced massive invasion with a series of missile attacks and airstrikes all over the country. From that moment on, the fear of death has became a companion of every Ukrainian within the country.
LEARN MORE
LEISURE CRAFT
The ocean, often seen as a place where one can easily get lost, is rarely perceived as a social space. Sociologists typically view everything that happens "at sea" as something remote and unrelated to what occurs on land, or, at best, as a preparatory phase for real life taking place on shore.
Years of education, culminating in years of work, have become the foundation of Leisure Craft—a deeply personal photographic exploration of the often overlooked and profound social isolation experienced by seafarers. This project delves into the lives of those who spend months at sea, separated from their families, communities, and the familiar comforts of home.
The sea is both a workplace and a prison, a vast expanse that symbolizes freedom yet enforces strict confinement. The isolation of seafarers is not just physical but also deeply psychological, as they are disconnected from society and the rhythms of everyday life on land.
This project seeks to document the human aspects of maritime life, exploring the resilience and coping mechanisms of those who spend much of their lives in solitude.
As seafarers spend long periods away from home, their sense of identity often becomes intertwined with the transient nature of their work. The project explores how they maintain connections to their roots, family, and memories, often through small tokens, photographs, or rituals that remind them of home.
Despite the challenges, seafarers develop unique ways to cope with isolation—whether through camaraderie with fellow crew members, creative hobbies, or simply looking forward to the day they can return home. Leisure Craft showcases these coping mechanisms, emphasizing the strength and adaptability of the human spirit.
Leisure Craft aims to raise awareness about the mental health challenges faced by maritime workers, a group often overlooked in discussions about social isolation.
LEARN MORE
Odesa and Kyiv are series of street photographs taken between 2014 and 2017 in two of these cities. One of them is the capital of Ukraine, and the other is a predominantly Russian-speaking cosmopolitan port city where I was born.
Growing up in Eastern Europe, especially during times of social and political transition, often involves navigating a multitude of conflicting identities and shifting social connections.
The sense of identity in such contexts is frequently questioned and redefined, shaped by historical legacies, geopolitical influences, and the immediate socio-political climate.
My constant feeling of disconnection from my surroundings made photography a way of building bridges between me and the subject, often intrusive while putting them in the spotlight of the interaction. Not feeling as part of the social landscape, I believe my photography translates a sense of confusion of a person stuck in the center of a nationwide identity crisis.
SHORE LEAVE, HONG KONG
Shore leave is that gritty, fleeting escape for sailors who’ve been trapped on a steel prison for weeks or months, surrounded by nothing but endless ocean and the same worn-out faces. It’s the brief moment when they can stumble off the ship, hit solid ground, and remind themselves what life feels like outside the confines of metal and saltwater.
It’s a raw, chaotic plunge into the world they’ve been cut off from—bars, neon lights, the smell of street food, the feel of pavement under their boots. It’s a rush to drink, to find a bed that doesn’t rock with the waves, to maybe hook up with someone who isn’t just a ghost in a letter or a memory. But it’s all on borrowed time.
Shore leave is like tearing off a bandage, giving these men and women a taste of freedom and humanity before they’re dragged back to the relentless grind of the sea. It’s not about relaxation; it’s about cramming as much life as they can into a few short hours, knowing they’ll soon be swallowed by the ocean again. It’s desperation masked as celebration, a chance to breathe before the water takes them back.