Photobook Oleksandr Hliadielov

This photobook brings together over three decades of work by documentary photographer Oleksandr Hliadielov. Known for his black-and-white images made with a Leica camera, he captures not only events and individuals, but the vulnerable states of society itself — moments when structures crack, when supports collapse, and something essential reveals itself in that fragility.
Although Hliadielov’s photographic practice spans different countries and contexts — from Central Asia to Africa — this photobook focuses exclusively on images made in Ukraine. Yet it is neither an archive nor a linear narrative. “Time is not academic,” Hliadielov notes. This position defines the book’s composition: instead of a chronology, it is structured thematically, around four central directions of his practice — the 1990’s as a period of transformation and disintegration; Children as a gaze from within a vulnerable condition; Protest as a phase of civic self-determination; and War as a long-term subject the photographer has been documenting in Ukraine and beyond.

Hliadielov’s camera operates within a field of trust — with those who are rarely seen, or shown only from the outside. He sustains strong, lasting relationships with his subjects, bonds that extend far beyond the frame. As a result, his images serve not simply as testimonies about others, but as testimonies shared with them.
Throughout the course of his career, Hliadielovhas helped shape the field of Ukrainian documentary photography through his steady focus on those at the margins, his ongoing work with communities in crisis, and his readiness to remain where others turn away.
This work aims to document a country in the midst of dramatic change — in its pauses, tension, trauma, and dignity.