Draft:Anatol Kliashchuk

Anatol Kliashchuk (Belarusian: Анатоль Кляшчук; Russian: Анатолий Клещук) was born on October 21, 1957, in the village of Vynistsy in the Slutsk district. After finishing school, he worked as a village builder and a worker at the Minsk aircraft repair plant. From 1981 til 1986, he studied at the Department of Journalism of Belarusian State University.

In childhood, he received his first lessons in photography from his father, an amateur photographer. Later he attended the school club of photo amateurs. He felt his real calling for photography only after his service in the army. When at the plant, he began working for newspapers. Since 1985, he has been a camera reporter for principal newspapers, and since 1993, he has been working for the Belarusian daily “Zviazda”. He takes part in numerous photographic exhibitions and contests. His best-known works are about Chornobyl and Belarussian witnesses of the Holocaust. Cherrnobyl became one of the most important topics for Anatol since the first year of the tragedy. As stated by him, it was always important to have the topic talked about, not kept silent despite thee pain it was briging and still does: "I can't film the continuation of children's suffering without meaning. I will go to the area to observe. But what to show? At first I had a protest, a cry. I wanted people to know, to see. So that people think about health, about future generations. I felt that this was my element". His photographs were shown in Belarus and abroad including Austria (2000), Belgium (2001), Germany (1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000), Denmark (1994), USA (1991, 1994, 1996, 2001), Ireland (1996), Lithuania (1997, 2002), Canada (1994), Poland (1998), Russia (2001, 2002), Switzerland (2003), Japan (1995). His photos about Chornobyl were also exhibited in the UNO (New York, 2001), in the palace of the nations of the UNO (Geneva, 2003), in the European Parliament (Brussels, 2001), at the contests “Europressphoto” (Vilnius, 1997; Istanbul, 1998). The title “Beneath the Sky of Belarus” was borrowed from the series of photographic exhibitions for which 2001 he was awarded the prize “For Spiritual Revival”.

Anatol Kliashchuk passed away on September 4, 2023.

Photo Albums

 * Zone of Sorrow, 1996
 * Beneath the Sky of Belarus, 2003
 * Beneath the Sky of Belarus, 2005
 * Chernobyl, 2006, 2016 (co-author with Dzianis Ramanyuk)
 * Chernobyl, 1986-2006. To Live with the Tragedy, 2006 (co-author with Rüdiger Lubricht
 * Beneath the Sky of Belarus, 2007
 * Belarus. Land of singers, 2012
 * The Circle Dance of Belarusian Rites, 2015
 * Beneath the sky of Belarus, 2020
 * Flower land of Belarus, 2020 (co-author with Leanid Dran'ko-Maisyuk)