emerging artists initiative

ELENA SUBACH

PHOTOGRAPHER

Elena Subach (1980) is a Ukrainian visual artist and photographer. Born in Chervonohrad, Ukraine. Currently based in Lviv, Ukraine. Elena studied economics and received her master`s degree at Volyn State University in Ukraine before she turned to photography. In an auto-didactic way, she developed her own unique vision of Ukrainian visual culture.

Elena questions religion, tradition, the construction of history and the consequences of Soviet colonial pasts. Since 2018, Elena has developed these ideas in her project on Grandmothers on the Edge of Heaven, for which she is researching and photographing crowded religious celebrations and ceremonies in Ukraine. The urge to show this rich Ukrainian heritage through an artistic eye is present in everything she captures. Prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Elena was distanced from the documentary genre, but the unfolding history forces Ukrainian artists to use their tools to register the testimonies.

These projects 2022-2023 include: Hidden, Chairs on the Border, and Record of Military Migrations. In 2022, Besides Press published Hidden as a photobook. The photographic part of the book is accompanied by the essay of Yurko Prohasko, a Germanist, translator, and publicist. In this essay Prohasko meditates on his experience of seeing the statue of John of Dukla (or Jan of Dukla), the patron saint and protector of Lviv, being taken down for transporting to a shelter. The description of Saint's temporary relocation, as well as Elena’s images, is a poignant testament to the resilience and determination of the people willing to preserve their heritage.

Elena has received awards such as the New East Photo Prize (2016) and the Gaude Polonia Scholarship (2019) while her photographs have been published in numerous magazines including the British Journal of Photography, Weltkunst, The Telegraph, The Atlantic, Vogue Poland, the Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung and many others. Her work has been shown at international exhibitions, most recently at the Willy Brandt House in Berlin.

Elena is currently researching the legacy of the photographer and filmmaker Yulian Dorosh and Lviv photography from the first half of the 20th century at the Dorosh Museum.