Oksana Parafeniuk (she/her) is an independent photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she is exploring the manifestations of human resilience and dignity among people facing hardships. Her main interest is to explore creative approaches in documentary photography.
In addition to her personal projects, Oksana has worked with and published her work in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, NBC News, BuzzFeed News, The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera English, Rest of World, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, MSF Doctors Without Borders, UN Women, UNHCR, L’Oeil de la Photographie, and others.
Oksana was an instructor at the National Geographic Photo Camp in Moldova in May, 2023.
Oksana has completed Hostile Environment First Aid Training (HEFAT) and is PADI Open Water Diving certified.
She is a member of Women Photograph and The Journal Collective.
Oksana holds an MA degree in French/Francophone Civilization, Culture, and Society from Middlebury College where she was awarded the Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Peace.
Oksana speaks fluent English, French and Russian, in addition to her native Ukrainian.
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:
Ukraine Endures: Russia's War Against Ukraine in Pictures, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, April 24 - June 30, 2023
Solo exhibition Ukraine, Life Before, The Centre Photographique Marseille, France, February 11 - April 15, 2023
The New Abnormal at PHOXXI, the temporary House of Photography of Deichtorhallen Hamburg, September 3-November 6, 2022
Women On The Move – Eastern Europe from Tradition to Action, September 9 – November 6, 2022, f3 – freiraum für fotografie in Berlin
Ukrainian Photography Today, The Print Center in Philadelphia, USA, September 16 - November 12
Ukraine. The Pass to Freedom, Groningen, Netherlands, September 10 - December 4, 2022
Kranj Photo Festival, Slovenia, August 24 - September 25, 2022
Ukraine 2022. Before and During the War, Centre Méditerranéen de la Photographie, Bastia, Corsica, October 13 - November 18, 2022
Les femmes s’exposent, Normandy, France, Summer 2022
Faces of War, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder Gallery, The Hague, Netherlands, June 2022
In Ukraine, Gallery at Dobbin Mews, Brooklyn, NYC, USA, March-May, 2022
The Captured House, War Through the eyes of Ukrainian ArPsts, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, 2022
Eyes on the Main Street in Wilson, NC, USA, 2021, 2020, 2019
Bristol Photo FesPval in Bristol, UK, 2021
Odesa Photo Days in Odesa, Ukraine, 2021
Jamii and The Journal ExhibiPon in Toronto, Canada, 2021
Arts Crawl 2017, Philadelphia, USA, April 2017
“What is your name?” by UNICEF, Mystetskyi Arsenal Art Center, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 2016
Selected Publications:
“A Drone Strike in Odesa Shatters a Family’s Life”, The New York Times, April 9, 2024
“At energy plant bombed by Russia, Ukrainian workers, and a cat, toil on”, The Washington Post, April 4, 2024
“After facing death, injured Ukrainian soldiers relearn intimacy”, The Washington Post, October 14, 2023
“He was tortured for standing up for Ukraine. Now he lives alone in a forest”, Economist 1843 Magazine, August 31, 2023
“Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, wants shells, planes and patience”, The Washington Post, June 30, 2023
“In Ukraine, some see drinking Aperol Spritz as supporting Russia”, The Washington Post, August 26, 2023
“As Russian shells fall, a race to get children with cancer out of Ukraine”, The Washington Post, April 1, 2022
“How Could I Not Show This to the World?' 5 Ukrainian Photographers on Turning Their Cameras to the War”, Time, April 15, 2022
“A Climate of Conflict in Ukraine”, U.S. News & World Report, February 8, 2022
“Meet the Ukrainian volunteers training to fight Russians in the streets of Kyiv”, The Washington Post, January 27, 2022
“Training Civilians, Ukraine Nurtures a Resistance in Waiting”, The New York Times, December 26, 2021
“Europe remembers its forgotten war”, Politico Europe, December 16, 2021
“Ukraine's war-torn Donbas region is on the verge of environmental disaster”, NBC News, May 16, 2021
“Tensions Rise in Crimea and Donbass as Russia Deploys Troops”, Der Spiegel, April 24, 2021
"A New Front Opens in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Borscht”, The New York Times, November 4, 2020
“Opening dossiers — and old wounds”, Rest of World, September 15, 2020
“A photographer sees a place inhabited by a dream version of an unsettled world gripped by pandemic”, The Washington Post, May 20, 2020
“Ukraine in flames: Chernobyl wildfire highlights a dangerous tradition”, NBC News, April 18, 2020
“Working in the wake of coronavirus”, The Washington Post, March 27, 2020
“A Small Town Was Torn Apart By Coronavirus Rumors", BuzzFeed News, March 9, 2020
“Judaïsme : dans le centre de l’Ukraine, un Roch Hachana “unique”, Religioscope, October 11, 2019
“Millions in eastern Ukraine endure invisible wounds of war”, UNHCR, October 4, 2019
“At a Ukrainian aircraft engine factory, China’s military finds a cash-hungry partner”, The Washington Post, May 20, 2019
“A Long and Painful Journey”, MSF/Doctors Without Borders, January 13, 2019
"Stopping Trade in its Tracks", U.S. News & World Report, March 28, 2017
"Oksana Parafeniuk Wooden Box of Photographs", The Eye Of Photography / L'oeil De La Photographie, December 3, 2016
Interviews:
“TJ Conversation: Marta Iwanek and Oksana Parafeniuk”, The Journal Collective, February 23, 2024
“A million stories to be told. Interview with Oksana Parafeniuk”, FK Magazine, March 29, 2023
“How Could I Not Show This to the World?’ 5 Ukrainian Photographers on Turning Their Cameras to the War”, Time, April 15, 2022
“How Ukrainian Photographers are Covering the War”, Blind Magazine, March 4, 2022
“Portrait of a photographer: Oksana Parafeniuk reclaims the narrative”, Rest of World, May 10, 2021