Bird in Flight Prize ’18 finalist: Random alignments or non-random coincidence

Alexander Chekmenev, Ukraine

From the life of provincial photographer of the last century.
Have not been published before.

My establishment as a photographers started in small city Luhansk right after Soviet Union collapse. The need for job would be replaced by need for food or money, but the need for film was constant. I would take any job. During the day I would stand in the city center offering to make a photo with enormous handmade toy, in the evenings I would shoot in the cafe, sometimes I would get lucky to shoot a wedding or funeral in the morning and by night I would go with Emergency medical brigade to the murder scene or road accidents. During the day I would photograph kids in the kindergarten, and at night I would find myself photographing in the morgue. I had to save expensive film, so I took one photo for one character. When I started to develop the color film myself I got these contact sheets.