Alyona Kochetkova is a photographer and educator, combining documentary with fine art and street photography.
Some of her long-term projects speak of her personal experience and background: cultural and geographical origins, the struggle with cancer, the story of childbirth after cancer. Some document the diversity of everyday life in modern Russia and others are experimental, researching the powers of visual images and methods.
Alyona also works with subjects of tradition, introspection, and the life struggles of ordinary people. She believes that story of one particular man can raise discussion about problems of a big group. Also, empathy is key to becoming more humane and people will not be able to stop hostility, violence, and wars with just knowledge of something being good or bad. Her goal is to tell a story that makes the supporters of opposite sides try to understand each other. She believes the lives of ordinary people all around can sometimes be more didactic than stories from top news around the world.
Alyona was born in 1988 in Kaluga, Russia. Her works have been published in TIME magazine, Newsweek Japan, GEO, La Vanguardia, Folha De S.Paulo, National Geographic Russia, Russian reporter magazine, Lenta.ru etc. She is the author of several solo and many group exhibitions.
Alyona is 3rd Prize Winner of World Press Photo 2019, 3rd Prize Winner of Px3 Paris Photography Prize, Honorable Mention of IPA, Grand Prix & 1st Prize winner of The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, Grand Prix Winner — The Young People In The XXI Century International Contest (Lithuania), finalist of The Circle Of Life contest 2019 (Lithuania). Her pictures were exhibited in Photobiennale Of The State Russian Museum, Baltic Biennale Of Photography Photomania, Volga Biennale Of Photography, PiterPhotoFest and many others. Photos are in collection of Leica Gallery Vienna, The State Russian Museum and Chuvash State Art Museum. She worked as a jury member of The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, The Circle Of Life contest, Arctic Delphic Games, Young photography photofestival etc.
