Artist
Mykhaylo Palinchak
Ukrainian street and documentary photographer currently residing and working in Kyiv, Ukraine. Master degree in International Economics of the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National University. He has pursued photography since 2008. Since 2012 member of the Ukrainian Photographic Alternative (UPHA) and since 2014 of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP). In 2014 - 2019, he was the official photographer of the President of Ukraine. Founder of ‘Untitled' online magazine and co-founder of Ukrainian Street Photography group. Member of PEN Ukraine since 2022. Author of the photo book “Anamnesis” (2020) and art-book “Maidan Faces” (2020). Since the beginning of full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine concentrated mostly on documenting war crimes and impact of war on civilians.
Highlight
Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Russian militaries and authorities have committed multiple war crimes all over Ukraine in the form of deliberate attacks on civilian targets, abduction, illegal captivity and torture of civilians, torturing of POWs, massacres of civilians, torture and rape, and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas.
Mykhaylo Palinchak with his photo series documents places of Russian war crimes all over Ukraine such as torture rooms in Kherson, a mass grave in Izum and Bucha, school in Yahidne village, destroyed civilian objects all over Ukraine, looted Kherson Fine Art Museum etc. The photo series highlights the cold void that the Russian world brings and leaves behind.
Sirens' whisper
On February 24, 2022, life in Ukraine changed completely. Millions of people were fleeing the war from the central and eastern regions of the country to the west and abroad. Those who remained were hiding in bomb shelters, started volunteering and took up weapon in their arms to defend the country, their cities and streets. Thousands of destroyed houses, thousands of ruined lives…
The sound of sirens warning about danger from the sky has been heard in our cities and on our streets since the first day of the war. Ukrainians have already gotten used to this sound, but actually it is a constant reminder that we live in a new world, unthinkable and dangerous.
Mykhaylo Palinchak has dedicated himself to documenting the daily lives of the Ukrainian people since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In his two photo series’ Sirens’ whisper and Highlight, Mykhaylo documents places of Russian war crimes all over Ukraine, destroyed civilian objects and houses, but also the extraordinary courage and solidarity of Ukrainian society. Both series demonstrate this documentary photographer’s unique style, extraordinary sensitivity to detail and excellent editing skills.
Maria Gutu drew our attention with the classical form of her photography. Maria photographs young people, often at the moment of transition from childhood to adolescence. Each of the gazes Gutu photographs is authentic, not only because she approaches her characters with great visual sensitivity, but also because she looks at them with understanding.
Childhood is also one of the key subjects of Michalina Kacperak's project. Soft Spot is the artist's personal story about her own family experience of alcoholism. Michalina is the eldest of four sisters – the offspring of an alcoholic father who is currently on the path to sobriety. “Among us, only Zosia clings to her childhood,” Kacperak says, and as a result, it was Zosia who became the inspiration for the project.
In nominating Grzegorz Wełnicki for FUTURES Talent, we wanted, above all, to recognise his consistent, long-term work on his project No'am. Since the beginning of his creative path, Wełnicki has been interested in themes of transience, corporeality and spirituality. In the project No’am he approached the theme of transhumanism in a multithreaded story about death.
Karolina Gembara is a photographer, researcher and activist who uses photography both as a tool and a pretext for collaboration, often involving people with a migratory experience. Gembara uniquely manages to combine extraordinary empathy and sensitivity with an excellent academic background and this makes her one of the most interesting artists in the Polish visual arts landscape.