Mstyslav Chernov

Chernov started his career in photography in 2005, working for a local Kharkiv news agency MediaPort.[9][10] He gained notoriety in 2008 when he received the 1st prize at a local photography exhibition "Kharkiv through the eyes of its inhabitants".[11] In the same year, he had his first personal photography exhibition "Musica per somnia," conceived and organized with assistance of Yuriy Yanko, the Director of Kharkiv Philharmonic Society, who was impressed by Chernov's photographs of Sayaka Shoji, a Japanese violinist, then performing with Kharkiv Philarmonics.[10][11] In 2009, Chernov won another first place award in local photo expo "Almost disappearing Kharkiv", covering crumbling examples of the city's older architecture.[12]

Starting in 2008, Chernov worked with Chornobyl Children International, the Novick Cardiac Alliance, photographing cardiac surgeries.[13] Chernov's transition to documentary photography continued. In 2012 he lived in Cambodia, focusing on local health care and cultural projects.[14]

Meanwhile, by 2013, Chernov's work gained national recognition. His 2013 photographs landed him the first place in the Ukrainian contest "Photographer of the Year" in nomination documentary photography.[15] In the same year, Chernov was a winner of the Pentax Awards Ukraine 2013[16] and Best Press Photographer, Ukraine, nomination "portrait".[17] He photographed in over forty countries and had another personal exhibition, Rainy Season, featuring images of the Far East.[18][19]

In 2013, Chernov became the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF).[1][20] Chernov's installation art project Peeking in Windows – placing enlarged old photographs into windows of abandoned buildings – gained the attention of the national press and was repeated in subsequent years.[20][21][22] In 2013, Chernov was invited to participate in Unframe, an international project around documentary photography.[23]

• Samples of Chernov's 2005–2013 photographs
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  Zoloti Vorota subway station, Kyiv, 2007
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  Street barber, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2009
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  Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome, Italy, 2009
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  Cigar Factory, Dominican Republic, 2011
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  Sri Lankan fisherman, 2011

In the summer of 2013, while photographing in Istanbul, Turkey, Chernov found himself in the middle of Gezi Park protests. The images of night violence impressed Chernov and triggered a shift from fine-art photography and documentary photography to conflict and war reporting.[24]

• Chernov's photographs of Gezi Park Protests, Istanbul, 2013
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  June 3, 2013
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  June 5, 2013
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  June 15, 2013
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  June 15, 2013
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  June 15, 2013

In late 2013, Ukraine's capital Kyiv became embroiled in mass protests – Euromaidan which culminated in bloodshed, Revolution of Dignity, and the ousting of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. Chernov photographed the action as a MediaPort and Unframe correspondent. As violence intensified, he was attacked and wounded several times. In early December 2013, pro-Yanukovych police targeted and attacked members of the press, injuring Chernov's hand with a baton, tearing up his press credentials, and destroying his photography equipment.[25] In January 2014, ignoring Chernov's insignia that identified him as a member of the press, a pro-Yanukovych policeman deliberately threw a stun grenade into Chernov, injuring his legs and eye with shrapnel.[26][27]

The events in Kyiv attracted considerable international attention. Many international reporters flocked to cover the Ukrainian Revolution which later transitioned into the annexation of Crimea and War in Donbas. Chernov provided the international reporters with local assistance, also starting as a translator and a stringer for Associated Press.[24][28] Chernov's background in photography and his partnership with other reporters allowed him to polish his video filming skills and become a regular freelancer for Associated Press in May 2014.[28]

• Chernov's photographs of Euromaidan, 2013–2014
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  Protesters, November 30, 2013
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  Berkut man pointing gut at protesters, January 19, 2014
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  January 22, 2014
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  February 18, 2014
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  Bodies of protesters, February 20, 2014

By July 2014, Chernov already worked as an independent multi-format (text, photo, and video) journalist for Associated Press.[28] Russian military intervention to Donbas had created another conflict zone in Ukraine, and Chernov covered War in Donbas in 2014, becoming one of very few journalists who reported the conflict from both sides.[29][30][31] He was the first journalist who published the video footage from the scene after downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.[32]

On his third day working as an independent AP journalist, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in the area, and Chernov provided first images of the incident. Chernov's reporting played an essential role in The Associated Press' coverage of the event.[28] For his coverage of the event, Chernov was awarded "Young Talent of the Year" Award by Royal Television Society.[28]

In subsequent years as an AP journalist and war correspondent, Chernov covered the war in Syria and the Battle of Mosul in Iraq[24] as well as the 2015 European migrant crisis in Greece, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany.[23] In 2017, in Mosul, a sniper bullet pierced through Chernov's camera and stuck in his ballistic vest.[30] Chernov's Iraqi videos were finalist entries for Rory Peck Award in 2017[33][34] and for Royal Television Society awards in 2017 and 2018.[35][36]

Chernov's reports were published worldwide, including being picked up by The Independent,[37] The Seattle Times,[38] Military Times,[39] Navy Times,[40] Washington Examiner.[41] Chernov's photographs were also published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Dailymail, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, Die Zeit, and others, and his videos were aired on BBC, Euronews, CNN, Fox News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and others.[23] In 2016, a Royal Television Society judge commented that "given the range, volume, and global distribution of [Chernov's] footage, there may have been days last year when we watched [Chernov's reporting] all day."[42]

In the spring of 2020, Mstyslav Chernov worked in Libya, Syria, covering the migration crisis in Turkey. From May to July and from September to October, the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine is filmed.[43]

In August 2020, the journalist worked in Belarus, covering the presidential elections.[44] After the announcement that Lukashenko was the winner of the elections, large-scale protests began. In Minsk, Chernov was captured and beaten by Belarusian law enforcement officers. The photographer lost consciousness after being beaten in the police van. He regained consciousness already in the ambulance.[45] During protests Chernov recorded the moment when a man in a bloody shirt fell to the ground. Later it was established that this is protester Oleksandr Taraikovsky. Chernov's photo and video became incontrovertible evidence that Taraikovsky was shot at point-blank range by members of the special forces on August 10, 2020 in Minsk, while government media tried to portray the incident as something that happened due to the carelessness of a protester.[46] After that, Chernov was deported from the country, and his accreditation was not extended.[47]

During 2020 and 2021, he also works in Nagorno-Karabakh, Afghanistan, Lithuania, and Armenia.

In February and March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chernov and the freelancer Evgeniy Maloletka, working for AP, stayed in Mariupol, which was encircled by the Russian troops, under siege, and extensively bombed, whereas the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defense Ministry claimed that Russia only targets military installations. Chernov and Maloletka were among the few journalists, and, according to the AP, the only international journalists in Mariupol during that period, and their photographs were extensively used by Western media to cover the situation.[48] According to Chernov, on 11 March they were in a hospital taking photos when they were taken of the city with the assistance of Ukrainian soldiers. They managed to escape from Mariupol unharmed.[49] On 23 May 2022 Chernov, together with Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko, received the Knight International Journalism Award for their work in Mariupol, as announced by the International Center for Journalists.[50]

• Samples of Chernov's documentary photographs, 2015–2016
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  Mourning of fighters, Donetsk, Ukraine, June 2015
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  Syrian refugees in Hungary, September 2015
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  The aftermath of Paris Terrorist Attacks, November 2015
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  Mosul, Iraq, November 2016
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  Mosul, Iraq, November 2016

From the footage which Chernov collected in Mariupol, together with the team of Frontline (PBS channel) the journalist made the documentary "20 Days in Mariupol". The film was included in the competition of Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition category. The world premiere of the film took place at the festival in January 2023.[51] Film won Audience Award in World Cinema Documentary category.[5] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 100%.[52]

Outside observers note Chernov's deep compassion to humanity that makes his imagery influential. They also note the vast spectrum of his creative work and his "exceptional eye for detail."[53]

A Ukrainian photographer and a photography exhibition curator in Kharkiv, Volodymyr Ohloblin, commented on Chernov's work: "Mstyslav has exceptionally deep vision [sic] it's obvious that he feels for the people on his photographs. Mstyslav has a good intuition, a rare gift, how to convey in photographs what he sees."[54]

The Director of the European news section of Associated Press, Caro Kriel, said: "Through his involvement in some critical stories, Chernov has quickly proved himself to be a rare, multiformat journalist with an uncanny ability to develop a story in the most difficult conditions. He is a natural visual storyteller and his signature trait – compassion for humanity that suffuses almost every image – has ensured that his work has had an immediate impact."[28]

A judge of Royal Television Society Awards commented that "[Chernov] has an exceptional eye for detail and a full range of shots across his portfolio, capturing emotion and conveying the fear and sometimes panic that was at the heart of so many news events last year."[42]

Chernov himself believes that war should not be glamorized but pictured as is. Commenting on his own work, Chernov noted that he doesn't necessarily enjoy war journalism, but feels that he's at the right place, albeit his work might transition at some point to a different kind of photography, for example, to working for National Geographic.[30]

The photographer believes that sometimes you have to take risks in order to take a good photo: "You have to compromise: to show what is happening, you need to be in the center of events. If you take care of yourself, you will never take a photograph of the most important thing".

Chernov prefers to work "light," carrying simpler, smaller equipment, that could always be on him and ready to shoot at all times. He works with small cameras and usually doesn't use a tripod.[34]

Since 2013, Chernov has been implementing the "Looking into Windows" («Зазираючи у вікна») project in Kyiv.

In 2013, pre-revolutionary portraits, mostly by Kharkiv photographer Oleksiy Ivanytskyi, decorated the windows of the house on the street. Yaroslaviv Val, 15. Most of the photographs depicted people from Kharkiv, including a self-portrait of the photographer with his granddaughter. Photographer Volodymyr Ogloblin became a partner at this stage — the photos used were from his collection.[66]

In 2014, the second part of the project was placed in the windows of the building at Shevchenko Street, 5. This stage was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko. His portraits painted by contemporary artists of the Maidan were selected for the project.

In December 2020, the third stage of the project was the exhibition "Sleeping House" (“Сплячий будинок”) in partnership with the NGO "Renovation Map" - an installation with archival photos integrated into the windows of the "Dragon House" - an abandoned building on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, 19. In the photo were archival portraits of Ukrainians in traditional clothes, by Ukrainian photographer Ivan Karpov. In the photos, people's eyes were "closed" with the help of computer graphics, because "people are increasingly distant from reality and plunge into the world created by media and advertising". The main element of the exhibition was a large portrait of Hryhorii Skovoroda.[67]