Mstyslav Chernov

Mstyslav Andriiovych Chernov (Мстислав Андрійович Чернов, ; born 1985) is a Ukrainian filmmaker, war correspondent, videographer, photographer, photojournalist, and novelist. A Pulitzer Prize and Academy Awards winner known for his coverage of the Revolution of Dignity, War in Donbas, the downing of flight MH17, Syrian civil war, Battle of Mosul in Iraq, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the Siege of Mariupol.

For his work on the Siege of Mariupol he received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, the Knight International Journalism Awards, Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award, Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award, Free Media Awards, CJFE International Press Freedom Award, Royal Television Society Television Journalism Awards, and Shevchenko National Prize. Video materials from Mariupol became the basis of the film 20 Days in Mariupol, which was included in the competition program of the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. The film won the Audience Award in World Cinema Documentary category. The film later won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary and Best Documentary Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. Chernov himself won Directors Guild of America Awards. In 2023, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko, and Lori Hinnant. He has both won and been a finalist for the Livingston Award, Rory Peck Award, Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize, and various Royal Television Society awards.

Chernov is an Associated Press journalist and the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF). He has been a member of "Ukrainian PEN" since July 2022.

Fine-art and documentary photography: 2005–2013
Chernov started his career in photography in 2005, working for a local Kharkiv news agency MediaPort. He gained prominence in 2008 when he received the 1st prize at a local photography exhibition "Kharkiv through the eyes of its inhabitants". In the same year, he had his first personal photography exhibition "Musica per somnia," conceived and organized with assistance of Yuriy Yanko, the Director of Kharkiv Philharmonic Society, who was impressed by Chernov's photographs of Sayaka Shoji, a Japanese violinist, then performing with Kharkiv Philarmonics. In 2009, Chernov won another first place award in local photo expo "Almost disappearing Kharkiv", covering crumbling examples of the city's older architecture.

Starting in 2008, Chernov worked with Chornobyl Children International, the Novick Cardiac Alliance, photographing cardiac surgeries. Chernov's transition to documentary photography continued. In 2012 he lived in Cambodia, focusing on local health care and cultural projects. Meanwhile, by 2013, Chernov's work gained national recognition. His 2013 photographs landed him the first place in the Ukrainian contest "Photographer of the Year" in nomination documentary photography. In the same year, Chernov was a winner of the Pentax Awards Ukraine 2013 and Best Press Photographer, Ukraine, nomination "portrait". He photographed in over forty countries and had another personal exhibition, Rainy Season, featuring images of the Far East.

In 2013, Chernov became the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF). Chernov's installation art project Peeking in Windows – placing enlarged old photographs into windows of abandoned buildings – gained the attention of the national press and was repeated in subsequent years. In 2013, Chernov participated in Unframe, an international documentary photography project.

Journalism
In the summer of 2013, while photographing in Istanbul, Turkey, Chernov found himself in the middle of Gezi Park protests. The night violence triggered a shift from fine-art photography and documentary photography to conflict and war reporting.

Euromaidan
In late 2013 in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, Chernov photographed the mass protests of Euromaidan as a MediaPort and Unframe correspondent. He was attacked and wounded several times. In December 2013, pro-Yanukovych police injured Chernov's hand with a baton, tore up his press credentials, and destroyed his photography equipment. In January 2014, ignoring Chernov's insignia that identified him as a member of the press, a pro-Yanukovych policeman threw a stun grenade into Chernov, injuring his legs and eye with shrapnel.

Many international reporters flocked to cover the Ukrainian Revolution which later transitioned into the annexation of Crimea and War in Donbas. Chernov provided the international reporters with local assistance, also starting as a translator and a stringer for Associated Press. Chernov's background in photography and his partnership with other reporters allowed him to polish his video filming skills and become a regular freelancer for Associated Press in May 2014.

Career with Associated Press
By July 2014, Chernov already worked as an independent multi-format (text, photo, and video) journalist for Associated Press. Russian military intervention to Donbas had created another conflict zone in Ukraine, and Chernov covered War in Donbas in 2014, becoming one of very few journalists who reported the conflict from both sides. He was the first journalist to publish video footage from the scene after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

On his third day working as an independent AP journalist, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in the area, and Chernov provided the first images of the incident. His reporting played an essential role in the AP's coverage of the event. For his coverage of the event, Chernov was awarded the "Young Talent of the Year" Award by Royal Television Society.

In subsequent years as an AP journalist and war correspondent, Chernov covered the war in Syria and the Battle of Mosul in Iraq as well as the 2015 European migrant crisis in Greece, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. In 2017, in Mosul, a sniper bullet pierced Chernov's camera and stuck in his ballistic vest. Chernov's Iraqi videos were finalist entries for the Rory Peck Award in 2017 and for Royal Television Society awards in 2017 and 2018.

Chernov's reports were published worldwide, including being picked up by The Independent, The Seattle Times, Military Times, Navy Times, and Washington Examiner. Chernov's photographs were also published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, Die Zeit, and his videos were aired on BBC, Euronews, CNN, Fox News, Sky News, Al Jazeera. In 2016, a Royal Television Society judge commented that "given the range, volume, and global distribution of [Chernov's] footage, there may have been days last year when we watched [Chernov's reporting] all day."

In the spring of 2020, Chernov worked in Libya, Syria, covering the migration crisis in Turkey. From May to July and from September to October, he filmed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine.

In August 2020, Chernov worked in Belarus, covering the presidential elections. After the announcement that Lukashenko was the winner of the elections, large-scale protests began. In Minsk, Chernov was captured and beaten by Belarusian law enforcement officers. He lost consciousness after being beaten in a police van and regained consciousness in an ambulance. During protests Chernov recorded the moment when a man in a bloody shirt fell to the ground. Later it was established that this protester was Oleksandr Taraikovsky. Chernov's photo and video became incontrovertible evidence that Taraikovsky was shot at point-blank range by members of the special forces on August 10, 2020 in Minsk, while government media tried to portray the incident as something that happened due to the carelessness of a protester. After that, Chernov was deported from the country, and his accreditation was not extended.

During 2020 and 2021, he also worked in Nagorno-Karabakh, Afghanistan, Lithuania, and Armenia.

In February and March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chernov and the freelancer Evgeniy Maloletka, working for AP, stayed in Mariupol, which was encircled by Russian troops, under siege, and extensively bombed, whereas the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defense Ministry claimed that Russia only targets military installations. Chernov and Maloletka were among the few journalists, and, according to the AP, the only international journalists in Mariupol during that period, and their photographs were used by Western media to cover the situation. According to Chernov, on 11 March they were in a hospital taking photos when they were taken of the city with the assistance of Ukrainian soldiers. They managed to escape from Mariupol unharmed. On 23 May 2022 Chernov, together with Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko, received the Knight International Journalism Award for their work in Mariupol. At the end of 2022 he was included in the nationwide Ukrainian ratings "People of the HB 2022 in the year of war" and "14 songs, photos and art objects that became symbols of Ukrainian resistance" by Forbes Ukraine.

20 Days in Mariupol
From footage Chernov collected in Mariupol, together with the team of Frontline (PBS channel) he made the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol. The film was included in the competition of Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition category. The film's world premiere took place at the festival in January 2023. The film won the Audience Award in World Cinema Documentary category. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 100%.

In 2023, 20 Days in Mariupol received the Cinema for Peace award as the best documentary of the year, and the Standing Up award at Cleveland International Film Festival. The Ukrainian premiere took place at the Docudays UA festival and the film took the main award. At the New Zealand documentary film festival Doc Edge, 20 Days in Mariupol was awarded in two nominations: Best Director (Mstyslav Chernov) and Best Editing (Michelle Mizner). Later, the film received The Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield DocFest.

The film was released in selected theaters in the US on July 14, 2023 and is scheduled for a Ukraine public release from August 31. Pre-premiere screenings took place in Kyiv (Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2023 festival) and Lviv (NGO "Lviv Media Forum"). On the first weekend of September 2023, the film collected more than 530 thousand hryvnias at the Ukrainian box office, becoming the highest-grossing Ukrainian documentary in history.

The Ukrainian Oscar Committee nominated "20 Days in Mariupol" from Ukraine for the 96th Academy Awards in the category "Best International Feature Film". Film won BAFTA Film Awards in "Best Documentary' category and was nominated in "Film not in the English language" category Film was included in long-lists of Academy Awards and later won  the Best Documentary Feature Film category.

The film won two nominations for the Kinokolo National Film Award (Best Documentary and Discovery of the Year). The film was ranked as one of the top three documentaries of 2023 by IndieWire. Film received Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary.

In October, the film was to be shown at the Serbian Beldocs festival at the Lazarevac Cultural Center in the suburbs of Belgrade. On October 10, the Serbian Radical Party called for the cancellation of the screening of the "anti-Russian propaganda film of the Kyiv regime" which is "an attempt by the West to change the attitude of the Serbian people towards brotherly Russia". On October 12, the festival administration canceled the screening, stressing that "Beldocs is not behind this decision and did not participate in it".

Chernov's style
Outside observers note Chernov's deep compassion to humanity that makes his imagery influential. They also note the vast spectrum of his creative work and his "exceptional eye for detail."

A Ukrainian photographer and a photography exhibition curator in Kharkiv, Volodymyr Ohloblin, commented on Chernov's work: "Mstyslav has exceptionally deep vision [sic] it's obvious that he feels for the people on his photographs. Mstyslav has a good intuition, a rare gift, how to convey in photographs what he sees."

The Director of the European news section of Associated Press, Caro Kriel, said: "Through his involvement in some critical stories, Chernov has quickly proved himself to be a rare, multiformat journalist with an uncanny ability to develop a story in the most difficult conditions. He is a natural visual storyteller and his signature trait – compassion for humanity that suffuses almost every image – has ensured that his work has had an immediate impact."

A judge of Royal Television Society Awards commented that "[Chernov] has an exceptional eye for detail and a full range of shots across his portfolio, capturing emotion and conveying the fear and sometimes panic that was at the heart of so many news events last year."

Chernov himself believes that war should not be glamorized but pictured as is. Commenting on his own work, Chernov noted that he doesn't necessarily enjoy war journalism, but feels that he's at the right place, albeit his work might transition at some point to a different kind of photography, for example, to working for National Geographic.

The photographer believes that sometimes you have to take risks in order to take a good photo: "You have to compromise: to show what is happening, you need to be in the center of events. If you take care of yourself, you will never take a photograph of the most important thing".

Chernov prefers to work "light," carrying simpler, smaller equipment, that could always be on him and ready to shoot at all times. He works with small cameras and usually doesn't use a tripod.

Writing
In January 2020, Chernov presented his psychological novel Dreamtime (Часи сновидінь), a 500-page fiction conceived and written over an 8-year period. Alluding to aboriginal Dreamtime, the novel examines societies' collective experiences ("dreams") with war and conflict and is loosely based on real events that Chernov witnessed during the war in Donbas, the Migration crisis in Europe and others. It features four intertwined plot lines that span across vast geography from Eastern Ukraine to Southern Europe, then to Southeast Asia, yet united by a common theme of internal conflict resolution. The novel was launched in Kyiv as a focal point of a video art exhibition devoted to the role of media in creating public collective experiences. The novel was credited for its creative literary application of dreams to showcase protagonists' psyches and for its "serious" and "masterly prose". The novel was included in the TOP books of 2020 by volunteers, writers and military journalists about the Russian-Ukrainian war according to "Army FM".

Literary expert and critic Tetyana Trofymenko believes that The Dreamtime is unexpectedly strong and stylistically formed prose for a debutant. Journalist and critic Yuryi Volodarsky called the novel the first large-scale literary text in Ukrainian literature in which the war in Donbas is shown from the other side of the front. "A novel for a debut is surprisingly bright, but in so many moments it is uncomfortable that it is better to ignore it. "The Dreamtime" is devoid of both the author's evaluative judgments and the transmission of "correct" views from the mouths of the characters. Chernov is first and foremost a humanist, this is evident in his prose no less than in photos from hot spots".

On September 26, 2023, Mstislav Chernov stated that the publishing house "Samit-knyga" had not paid him a fee two years after the publication of the novel and refused to report on the sale of the book. The publishing house apologized and sent reports. Chernov forbade the publishing house to further use his name and book for advertising.

Fiction by Chernov

 * Часи сновидінь = Dreamtime (2020)
 * The Dreamtime. Cherry Orchard, 2022. ISBN 978-1644699881. In English.

Photography books with contributions by Chernov

 * Незалежні = Independents. Ваш автограф, 2022. 144 pictures taken by 60 Ukrainian photographers over 30 years. With text by Mstyslav Chernov. Edited by Mykhailo Palinchak.