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- Films from the Frontline: Photographs, Letters and Artifacts of Ukrainian Soldiers, 2025
Serhii Melnychenko
At the beginning of 2025, after spending nearly all of 2024 working on the documentary project “Under the Dnipro”, I felt an even stronger need to convey the truth and realities of war. However, time did not allow frequent trips to the frontlines to meet our soldiers.
I then returned to the company FOTOVRAMCI and shared the idea for a new project: sending disposable film cameras to Ukrainian soldiers stationed across different directions on the front, so that they could document their own lives, routines, and work. The company supported me and provided 25 cameras for the project, for which I am incredibly grateful. This is how everything began in February 2025.
The project, however, was not limited to photographs alone. Along with the cameras, I asked the participants to return them with a small artifact — something of their choosing — and a handwritten letter. This allowed me to collect more than just a diary of everyday life of different soldiers. It became a full story of personal experiences, dramas, and memories.
I gathered artifacts that will remain part of our country’s history after victory and serve as reminders of these difficult times. Together with the photographs, they form a unique anthology of our heroes and heroines defending the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
I sincerely hope that after the war all participants of this project will survive. Each of them has become for me much more than a participant—they have become true friends.
Serhii Melnychenko – photographer, educator, curator
Born in 1991 in Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
In his youth, he earned the title of Master of Sport of international class in ballroom dancing (2005).
In 2014, he graduated from the Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding with a degree in Computer Systems Engineering (2008–2014, Mykolaiv).
In 2025, he earned a second higher education degree—a Master’s in Culture and Arts, specializing in Audiovisual Art and Production, from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture.
Serhii Melnychenko is a Ukrainian visual artist whose work combines conceptual, staged, and documentary photography. He began his photographic career in 2009, and within less than a decade became the first Ukrainian to win the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer (2017, Berlin).
In 2018, at the age of 26, he founded the MYPH (Mykolaiv Young Photography) School of Conceptual and Art Photography, which has since evolved into a dynamic platform including a photography school, artist community, gallery, agency, publishing house, magazine 525 by MYPH, and the MYPH Photography Prize. In 2019, the NGO MIFART was established.
Serhii has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions, fairs, and festivals worldwide and has published 14 photobooks—both personal and in collaboration with MYPH. He has also organized and curated over 60 exhibitions and projects showcasing student works from MYPH in various countries.
He is a member of the Ukrainian Photographic Alternative (UPHA) and the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP).
Awards and Recognition:
Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer (2017, Berlin)
Winner and prizewinner of the national Photographer of the Year awards (2012, 2013, 2016, Kyiv)
Gold Camera (2012, Kyiv)
Finalist at Krakow Photomonth, Pinchuk Art Centre Prize, Off_Festival Bratislava, DEBUTS, Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award, Batumi Photodays, and others
Nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award in 2020 and 2023
Exhibitions and Fairs:
Paris Photo, Volta Art Fair, Photo L.A., Photo Basel, Unseen. From 2025, Serhii Melnychenko and MYPH serve as nominators for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award.
His works are held in private and public collections in the USA, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, China, and other countries.
In 2022–2023, two of his series were acquired by the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung (Munich), whose collection includes works by Robert Rauschenberg, Ai Weiwei, Nan Goldin, Zhen Han, Thomas Struth, Sebastião Salgado, Nadav Kander, Luo Yang, Pixy Liao, and others.
In 2022, he was selected for the European photography platform FUTURES, nominated by ISSP Gallery (Riga, Latvia).
In 2023–2024, he was a fellow of the Alexander Tutsek Photography Grant (Munich, Germany).
In 2024, his series “Tattoos of War” was acquired by the permanent collection of the Kiyosato Museum of Photography (K*MoPA), Japan.
Public Honors:
2023 – Honorary Badge “For Contribution to the Army” from the Commander-in-Chief