Dmitry Beliakov

Dmitry Beliakov is a Russian photojournalist, born in 1970, in the Vologda region, in Northwestern Russia.

Career Through the course of his career Beliakov has covered seven conflicts: Chechnya 1994-96,1999-2010; the Russian-Georgian conflict of 2008; Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 2016, 2020; the war in Syria (in 2012, 2016, 2017); the war in the Donbass area (from March 2014-November 2019)

From 1999 to 2007, he documented the Second Chechen War. Throughout this period, he tried to remain neutral through his images, neither favouring the Russian government nor the Chechen rebels. As a war photojournalist he faced ample danger with land mines and mortar fire. He was also confronted by censors and restrictions during his coverage of the conflict.

2021-2022 Beliakov worked on a documentary photoproject “Armenian Journal” about post-war Armenia. Works were exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (NPAK) in republican capital Yerevan, Armenia.

In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which he publicly opposed, Beliakov relocated to the United States with his family. The move was supported in part by the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, and he subsequently received a fellowship at Norwich University in Vermont.

February 2023 Beliakov was invited by The John and Mary Frances Patton Peace and War Center at Norwich University to hold an exhibition of works from Donbas with a name “On the Margins of Europe: A War Before the War” and a special panel presentation (attended by representatives of CNN and HRW)

Beliakov currently lives in Vermont with his family and divides his time between commercial photography and travel across New England.