fine art photographer of the year

I live in Bucha and work in Irpin. After the Russian occupation, these cities were destroyed. The military landscape has become my reality and routine. Every day I see people who are restoring their cities, their personal lives from the ruins and looking into the future.
I created a series of photographs in a historical dialogue with images by Polish photographer Michael Nash, who captured how the photographer used a decorative backdrop to mask the ruins of Warsaw during World War II in 1945-1946.
The heroes of my photographs are women who became victims of Russian aggression.
The occupation continued in the spring, people who survived this tragic period did not notice how spring passed, how chestnuts and lilies of the valley bloomed, birds flew in. They were deprived not only of their homes, loved ones, work, health, but also part of their lives. IDPs from Donbass and Crimea have a second tragic spring. A stolen spring is a stolen life. Each photo is a personal tragedy, but it is also a life-affirming story of a survivor, a hope that Ukraine will rise from the ruins.

In the spring of 2014, began a mixed war against Ukraine. Now more than 2 million inhabitants who had left Donbass because of the war, have become refugees. Alena and her family had to leave their home and become refugees.
Born in Donbas and with a background in contiguous field, Alena Grom embraced photography relatively late, treating it as a conceptual art. Mastering the visual language of conceptual photography, the author could not help addressing matters that concern her directly: she shoots not the war in Donbas, but the way society interacts with war and what is left behind it. However, one should not see in these photographs mere illustrations of grief and mourning meant to squeeze out a tear. Her photography is not a lamentation; it is a reaffirmation of life.

2012 Kiev photo exhibition «Winemaking as art»
2014 Canada #EuroMaidan: Rising for Freedom and Democracy in Ukraine. A book that included my photos.
2016 The Royal Photographic Society; silver medal
2016 Singapore International Salon; bronze medal
2016 LivePressPhoto; bronze medal
2016 International photo show in Scotland; shortlisted
2016 Grand Photo Salon; shortlisted
2016 Kiev. Personal photo exhibition «Black Forest»
2017 Kolga Tbilisi Photo 2017; shortlisted
2017 PhotOn Festival International Festival of Photojournalism; shortlisted
2017 ANIMA MUNDI festival Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi
2017 Bogotà, at Jorge Jurado Gallery
2017 PhotogrVphy Grant 2018; shortlisted
2017 International Photographer Of The Year; the second prize in the category «People»
2018 Kaunas Photo Star; Finalists
2018 LensCulture Portrait Awards; Finalist
2018 Slovak Press Photo; Finalist
2018 International Photography Awards; Honorable Mention