Justyna Mielnikiewicz

Justyna Mielnikiewicz is a Polish photographer, based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She works as a documentary photographer and on long-term personal projects about post-Soviet states. She has published Woman with a Monkey and Ukraine Runs Through It (2019). She won the W. Eugene Smith Grant in 2016.

Early life and education Mielnikiewicz was born in Poland.

Work Mielnikiewicz is a self-taught photographer. Beginning work as a photojournalist for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza from 1999, she then moved to Georgia (in the South Caucasus) in 2001. She based herself in Tbilisi from 2002 and works as a freelance documentary photographer and on personal, long-term projects about post-Soviet states. As described in National Geographic, for Mielnikiewicz "it's a metaphor for modern Ukraine, a country split along historical and ideological divides: on one side, those aligned with the pro-Western ideas of democracy and on the other, those aligned with Russia" "The stories she has gathered illustrate the complex patchwork of histories, ethnicities, and experiences that make up modern Ukraine, and Mielnikiewicz is careful to point out that the current struggles fall along different versions of history and statehood, rather than along ethnic lines."

Personal life As of 2014, Mielnikiewicz was married and has a daughter.

Publications with contributions by Mielnikiewicz At the Border. [Warsaw]: Sputnik Photos, 2008. . Photographs by Andrej Balco, Jan Brykczyński, , Mielnikiewicz, Rafał Milach, Domen Pal, Agnieszka Rayss and ; texts in English. The untitled preface says that the book "describes the illegal labour markets in the new member states of the European Union (Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia)." U. [Warsaw]: Sputnik Photos, 2010. . Photographs by Jan Brykczyński, Andrej Balco, , Agnieszka Rayss, Rafał Milach, Filip Singer, Ivan Kurinnoy, Janis Pipars and Mielnikiewicz. With short texts in English by Serhiy Zhadan, Irena Karpa, and the photographers. "Photos taken in Ukraine in 2008–2010"; "the non-profit organization Altemus commissioned a team of young East European photographers from Sputnik Photos collective and Ukrainian writers, to travel the country and capture its ethos". Edition of 300 copies. Stand By = Ӡа Беларусь. Warsaw: Sputnik Photos, 2012. . Photographs of Belarus by Jan Brykczyński, Andrei Liankevich, Manca Juvan, Rafał Milach, Mielnikiewicz, Adam Pańczuk and Agnieszka Rayss. With text by Victor Martinovich in English and Belarusian. Edition of 1000 copies.

Awards Winner, Canon Female Photojournalist Grant, Canon Inc. 2014: 2015 Aftermath Project Grant. A $20,000 USD award. 2016: W. Eugene Smith Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. A $30,000 USD award.

Exhibitions The Meaning of a Nation – Russia and its Neighbours: Georgia and Ukraine, Cortona on the Move festival, Cortona, Italy, 2017