Aliona Kardash

Documentary Photographer

Biography 

Aliona Kardash (b. 1990) is a documentary photographer from Siberia based in Hamburg, Germany. 

Kardash graduated in journalism at the Tomsk State University in Russia, and in photography in the International Class of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund. Since 2012, Kardash has worked as a freelance photojournalist for international publications, including Der Spiegel, The Washington Post, GEO, Stern, Die Zeit, Zeit Magazin, and Zeit Wissen. In 2022, she was awarded the STERN Stipendium, working for a year as a photojournalist for Stern Magazine.

Her work is deeply influenced by her personal background, exploring cultural and national identity, the connection between people and their past, and the shared narrative that emerges from individual stories. 

She is a member of DOCKS collective. 

Photos: It Smells of Smoke at Home

Russia’s de facto ban on critical media and suppression of anti-war protests has created an alternative reality with its own take on what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine instead of a full-scale invasion. In this story, Aliona Kardash, Russian-born, but now resident in Germany, reflects on the loss of home, and on love for people who believe in a different version of reality. Making a return visit to her hometown, Aliona tries to capture how war transforms us, and to sustain the belief that personal bonds are stronger than the forces that tear us apart.