Sergei Stroitelev
Sergei Stroitelev is a Russian born freelance documentary photographer based in Berlin, Germany, His photographic practice primarily focuses on the exploration of the unnoticed and poorly covered issues of modern society.
With the help of different visual languages and forms Sergei looks at the problems of identity of minorities, prejudice on the basis of race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, issues of ecology, consequences of the conflicts and natural disasters. He often executes very personal photographic projects exploring my very own past and family.
Sergei came to professional photojournalism from Human Rights Law. He worked in this field for 2 years and was very burned out. Photography had always been his hobby and he decided to make it his profession by enrolling in Press Photographers Faculty named after Yu.A.Galperin at the Journalists’ Union of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad region.
Sergei graduated in 2014 with the diploma project dedicated to the Revolution on Maidan square in Kyiv (Ukraine) where he spent two months documenting the events. After the execution of this project, Sergei realized all the power of photography as a visual evidence.
Since 2014 Sergei has been worked on the regular basis with independent Russian media and international magazines such as: Meduza, Novaya Gazeta, Takie Dela, De Volkskrant, VICE UK/USA, D-la Repubblica, Helsingin Sanomat.
International NGO’s such as Red Cross and Doctors of the World are also among Sergei’s clients.
During the last 10 years, Sergei managed to cover important international events such as: migration crisis in Europe in 2015 or the concequences of the earthquakes in Nepal in 2015 and in Turkey in 2023.
Sergei travelled almost all over Russia and made dozens of stories dedicated to his homeland and untold issues Russian people faced in their daily routine.
In 2016 Sergei published a book “The Color of Violence” dedicated to the violence based on racial prejudice in Russia. The book was crowdfunded and had a great response from the readers.
Sergei is the awardee of the number of international contests such as: Kolga Photo Awards, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Bartur Photo Awards, Pictures of the Year International, Pictures of the Year Asia, Istanbul Photo Awards, Direct Look Photocontest, Luis Valtuena Humanitarian Photography Award and many more.
He also teaches post-documentary photography at Fotografika Academy (since 2022 only online). Sergei’s students have won several big international contests including: Vilnius Photo Circle and Cortona On The Move.
At the moment Sergei lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
He left Russia on the 4th of March 2022, after the start of the war in Ukraine. War censorship and discriminative laws aimed at independent journalists made it dangerous for him to stay in the country.
His latest project is dedicated to the Russian migrants who leave the country in different directions and now are trying to build new life from the scratch.
Education:
September 2022 – December 2022 – Photo 2 advanced programme
-Danish School of Media and Journalism (Aarhus, Denmark)
May 2015 – May 2016 – Beyond photojournalism (1 year long workshop)
-International Summer School of Photography (Riga Latvia)
September 2012 – May 2014 – Photojournalism
-Press Photographers Faculty named after Yu.A.Galperin at the Journalists’ Union of St.Petersburg and Leningrad region (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
September 2008 – June 2011 – Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) / Legal Practice Course (LPC)
-BPP Law School (London, UK)
September 2007 – August 2008 – LLM in International Human Rights Law
-Bristol University (Bristol, UK)
Related working experience:
January 2015 – present – Freelance documentary photographer
January 2016 – present – Curator and educator
-Kantian Traditions artistic residence (Kaliningrad, Russia)
-Fotografika academy of documentary and art photography (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
-Uglich International Photofestival (Uglich, Russia)
-Belorussian Association of Photojournalists (Riga, Latvia)
May 2017 – August 2017 – Contract photographer
-Doctors of the World NGO (migration department), head office – Reggio Calabria, Italy
May 2014 – December 2014 – Contract photographer
-Red Cross (HIV, drug addiction department), Kathmandu, Nepal
Books:
2024 – I Wish It Was Just a Nightmare
2019 – The Color of Violence (self-published)
Contests:
Kolga Tbilisi Photo Awards, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Bartur Photo Awards, Pictures of the Year International, Pictures of the Year Asia, Istanbul Photo Awards, Direct Look Photocontest, Luis Valtuena Humanitarian Photography Award and many more.