Serhii Melnychenko

Serhii Melnychenko (, born 26 October 1991, Mykolaiv, Ukraine ) is a Ukrainian photographer, teacher, curator, dancer, master of sports of the international class in ballroom dances. Founder of the school of conceptual and art photography MYPH (2018). Member of the creative association Ukrainian Photographic Alternative (2012),

In 2017, he became the first Ukrainian to receive the German Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer.

Biography Since his teenage years, he has been performing abroad, in particular in China.

In 2025, he obtained his second higher education degree, receiving a master's degree in culture and arts with a specialization in "Audiovisual Arts and Production" from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture.

In 2012, he rethought his own approach to artistic practice after communicating with Roman Piatkovka, a representative of the Kharkiv School of Photography.

In 2018, at the age of 26, he founded the MYPH (Mykolaiv Young Photography) School of Conceptual and Art Photography, which has since evolved into a dynamic platform that brings together a photography school, an artist community, a gallery, an agency, a publishing house, the magazine "525 by MYPH", and the MYPH Photography Prize.

Author of the series Schwarzenegger is my idol (2012, 2020; book of the same name published), Polaroids from China (2015), From Dusk till Dawn (2015—2017, 2018; a book of the same name was published), Passengers (2017), Young and Free (2017—2021), Fundamental Space Explorations of Naked Singularity (2019—2021) and others.

During his creative career, Melnychenko has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions, fairs, and international festivals. He is the author of 14 photo books, published both independently and in collaboration with the MYPH platform. As a curator and organizer, he has implemented over 60 exhibition projects in various countries, aimed at presenting the works of MYPH school students.

Photos are published in The Independent Photographer, Fisheye Magazine.

Works are presented in private and public collections in the US, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland etc.

Awards 2026 — Nominator of Leica Oskar Barnack Award ; 2024 — inclusion in the permanent collection of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (K*MoPA) — Kiyosato, Japan; 2023 — nomination for "A New Gaze 4", Vontobel Contemporary Photography Sponsorship Prize — Zurich, Switzerland; 2020 – Nomination on Foam Paul Huf Award – Amsterdam, Netherlands 2025 — Fundamental Space Explorations of Naked Singularity, The Great Finding. Step Four. With Mitya Fenechkin - Porokhova Vezha, Lviv, Ukraine .