A Letter from a
War photographer text and photographs by Konstantin Chernichkin
I
was born in 1981 into a family of photographers. My grandparents developed film in the bathroom of their Kyiv apartment back when photography was a popular hobby in Soviet Ukraine. Their son Mykhailo, my father, became a professional in this field. He enjoyed photographing sports and, while working for news agencies, his camera captured such historic moments as the Soviet
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Union collapse and the start of Ukrainian independence. With such a family history, we can say, my fate and that of my younger brother was sealed. As children, my father gave each of us a camera and encouraged us to take pictures. We were often surrounded by photographers, as well as interesting and inspiring journalists, whose work was fascinating.
I set photography aside to study economics, with the idea of contributing to the growth of Ukraine. By the time I graduated in 2004, however, I wanted to work as a photographer, and was already negotiating with various media outlets. Photojournalist Konstantin Chernichkin is pictured on a tank while on assignment covering the RussiaUkraine war in eastern Ukraine.