Ukraine. Stories of Resistance

Arianna Arcara (*1984) was born in Monza, Italy. After studying photography, she co-founded Cesura, a photo collective that explores different approaches to documentary photography, and the connected publishing house Cesura Publish of which she is co-art director. Her artistic practice delves into the ever-changing meaning and shape of boundaries; natural, urban, human or cultural. In several of her long-term projects, Arcara aims at walking along one of these boundaries through the creation of collaborative processes. She questions herself on how – and if – her photography impacts the people and stories she follows, constantly seeking and reflecting on new ways to engage and empower her subjects. Her work has been exhibited at the Triennale/Milan, LeBal Space/Paris, MoCP/Chicago, Kulturhuset/Stockholm, Deichtorhallen/Hamburg, Nobel Peace Center/Oslo among others.

Rafał Milach (*1978) is a visual artist, activist, photographer and educator. His work focuses on power relations between society and systemic oppression. Author of protest books and critical publications on state control. Rafal Milach is a professor at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School of Silesian University in Katowice, Poland. He has received scholarships from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Magnum Foundation, and European Cultural Foundation. Finalist of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Polityka Passports Award and a winner of the World Press Photo competition. Co-founder of the Archive of Public Protests and Sputnik Photos collectives. His works have been widely exhibited worldwide and can be found in the public institutional collections worldwide. Rafal is a member of Magnum Photos.

Sandra Schildwächter (*1992) lives and works as a freelance photographer close to Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She has a degree in communication design with a major in photography from the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt. Her reportage focus includes human interest stories, daily news and portraits about cultural and social topics. Numerous magazines and newspapers, including stern, SPIEGEL, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung F.A.Z., GEO, ZEIT, Nido, de Volkskrant and ABC News Australia and others have published her photographs. She also works as a picture editor for various print and online media. Since 2017, she has helped organize the FFF Academy of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt assisting over 70 of our workshop teachers such as Susan Meiselas, Mathieu Asselin, Andrea Diefenbach and Arno Rafael Minkkinen. In 2022 she participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), a professional exchange program of the U.S. Department of State, on »A Global Moment in Time: Photojournalists Document Challenges and Opportunities in the COVID Era« in the United States in 2022. She received the IVLP Impact Award 2022 for her documentation of Ukrainian refugee households in Germany.

Mykhaylo Palinchak (*1985) is a Ukrainian street and documentary photographer currently residing and working in Kyiv, Ukraine. He was born January 1985 in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. 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 (UAPF). In 2014-2019 he was the official photographer of the President of Ukraine. Founder of ‘Untitled’ 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). His works have been widely exhibited worldwide and stored in private collections and permanent collections of photography museums.