Justyna Mielnikiewicz, an award-winning Polish documentary photographer. She collaborates with leading international media outlets, including among others Newsweek, Le Monde, Stern, The New York Times, Washington Post, GEO France , National Geographic USA , and regularly with The Wall Street Journal. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, such as World Press Photo, Aftermath Project Grant, Eugene Smith Memorial Fund (2016), Canon Female Photojournalist Prize, and the Caucasus Young Photographer Award (Magnum Foundation). In 2023, she won the Olivier Rebbot Award (Overseas Press Club of America) for the best international photo reportage published in any medium (for WSJ, from Ukraine).A major part of her work is devoted to personal, long-term projects, published in book form: Woman with a Monkey – Caucasus in Short Notes and Photographs (2014), Ukraine Runs Through It (2019, shortlisted for Paris Photo / Aperture Best Book Award) and GOGO Magazine (2022, art book on women in the USSR and post-Soviet countries)

Awards & Honors (selected)

2023 – Winner of Olivier Rebbot Award, Overseas Press Club of America (The War in Ukraine: Portraits of Resilience and Resistance), My short speech starts at 33rd min

2019 – Ukraine Runs Through It – finalist, among best 20 books at Paris Photo / Aperture Best Book Award

2016 – Main Award and Grant, Eugene Smith Memorial Fund

2015 – Woman with a Monkey – became a Book of the Year & Self-published Book of the Year, at Fotofestiwal Łódź

2014 – Winner  at Aftermath Project Grant (War is Only Half of the Story – Ukraine)

2011 – Winner  at Caucasus Young Photographer Award (Magnum Foundation)

2009 – Winner  at Canon Female Photojournalist Prize (Visa pour l’Image, Perpignan)

2008 – Winner  at World Press Photo – 2nd prize , People in the News (War in Georgia)

She conducts photography workshops and specializes in documenting social and geopolitical transformations in Central Europe, the Caucasus, Ukraine and Russia in particular. Has experience in grant proposal writing , curating, organizing  talks on various topics, was a judge in international photography competition and tutor for various institutions teaching photography.