Mykhaylo Palinchak is a Ukrainian street and documentary photographer residing and working in Kyiv, Ukraine. He started photography in 2008. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Ukrainian Photographic Alternative (UPHA) and has been a member of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF) since 2014. From 2014-2019, Mykhaylo was the official photographer of the President of Ukraine. He is also the founder of "Untitled Magazine" and the co-founder of the Ukrainian Street Photography group. Additionally, Mykhaylo is the writer of the photo book "Anamnesis" (2020) and art-book "Maidan Faces" (2020). His photographs are stored in private collections and permanent collections of photography museums.

IVLP Impact Award Project: War-Torn

For this project, Mykhaylo took nine trips across Ukraine, from the de-occupied areas of Kharkiv to the frontlines of Donetsk. He collected oral and photographic testimonials to showcase and preserve the impact of the Russian invasion on people, landscapes, and local communities.

Mykhaylo’s photographs and testimonies collected were published in Ukrainian and Foreign Media outlets as well as presented in a photography exhibition in Kyiv, Ukraine. Six of the stories that he collected throughout his trips are published on social media channels and media. These stories include a kid hiding in a basement because of an air alert, volunteers helping to make food for soldiers, journalists who are separated from their families, and more heartbreaking stories. Mykhaylo also hosted multiple events for the Ukrainian community, such as giving a lecture to 50 journalism students from Uzhhorod National University and an artistic talk to 15 local journalists in Uzhhorod. He also hosted a photo exhibition at the Mala Gallery of Art Arsenal in Kyiv that garnered 1000 viewers. The gallery representative stated that Mykhaylo’s exhibition was the most popular event they had hosted since the full-scale Russian invasion.

Mykhaylo was also a panelist for the IVLP Impact Awards Alumni Discussion Series panel on “Community Support for Ukraine” which you can read more about here.

IVLP Exchange Experience 

Mykhaylo was a participant in the IVLP Project A Global Moment in Time - Photojournalists Document the Challenges and Opportunities in the COVID Era, organized by the U.S. Department of State and World Learning.

U.S. Communities Visited

Washington, DC; St. Petersburg, FL; Portland, OR

Country: Ukraine

Click here to go back to the IVLP Impact Awards Main Page