Who are we?

Sputnik Photos is an international collective founded in 2006 by documentary photographers from Central and Eastern Europe. We are united by a desire to observe and describe what surrounds us, as well as by our common experience of living in post-transformation countries.

Our achievements to date include important international awards, such as World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year International. Together we have organized several exhibitions around the world and published 8 photobooks. Our projects have been featured at photography festivals, in galleries and magazines worldwide.

About our project.  

We would like to invite you to support our artistic project in post-soviet countries of Central Asia. Twenty-five years after the fall of the USSR five Sputnik Photos photographers are setting out on a journey to five former soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.  

For a number of years, we have been documenting changes taking place in post-communist countries, particularly in the former republics of the Soviet Union, always referring to our own individual experience of the transformation period. Recently, we have focused on Belarus, Ukraine, Moldavia, Armenia and Georgia. In the face of an increasing political tension in the region, photography documenting everyday life, and the changes and myths of the countries still falling under Russian influence, becomes even more relevant.

Rafal Milach - from the series “Black sea of concrete.”

At the current stage, we are planning further trips to the former Soviet empire, focusing on Central Asia, and we hope you will support our efforts. 

We are interested in what is happening in the countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union, and still remain under Russian influence, because their history is also our history and it concerns us directly. We are immersing ourselves in this complex and multi-faceted world. We are uncovering the nations’ nostalgia for the empire, their drive to democracy, traces of former propaganda, poverty, but also the emergence of the new and hope for a better future. We are aware that our project will give neither a diagnosis nor simple and straightforward answers to the questions relevant for the region. Yet, we want to make discoveries and show them to others. We believe that 25 years after the change is a perfect time to sum up the efforts our nations have made to date.

Your help can make it happen!

Agnieszka Rayss - from the series "I reminesce and cry for life."

The funds raised will enable each of us to go on a single trip to one of the countries we focus on:

Kazakhstan: Agnieszka Rayss

Uzbekistan: Michał Łuczak 

Turkmenistan: Rafał Milach

Tajikistan: Adam Pańczuk

Kyrgyzstan: Jan Brykczyński

Adam Panczuk - from the sersies "I_AM_IN_VOGUE@BELARUS.BY".

The amount will cover return flights, films, their developing and scanning, accommodation and guides. In other words, a minimum that allows 5 people to make 5 independent trips and create 5 extraordinary stories.

Jan Brykczynski - from the series "Primary forest".

The project will be rounded off in 2016 by a mobile exhibition and a photobook for audiences across the globe. It will show all the 15 countries that used to be part of the USSR.

Michal Luczak - from the series "Spitak".

REWARDS

SET OF SIGNED POSTCARDS (from Distant Place  project)

SET  OF 5 STICKERS + SIGNED POSTCARD
Set of 5 stickers with "Indiegogo Campaign Animals" designed by Sputnik Photos photographer Rafal Milach and the "Lost Territories" postcard (signed). I

‘PSOPLAAINND’ catalogue for Sputnik Photos exhibition at Photoespana 2014.

ORIGINAL POLAROID (signed)

An original instant print, taken by one of us during our Cenral Asia trips and signed by the artist . Estimated time of delivery - Dcember 2015

BOIKO - book by Jan Brkczynski, regular edition, 1 copy!

SOLD OUT

more about the BOIKO project here.

STAND BY book
(check the updates section to see the video describing how we worked on the project).

STAND BY limited edition (50 copies) + PRINT

print of one of Sputnik photographers, random choice

IS (NOT) regular edition,  RARE book!

Photographers: Jan Brykczynski, Michal Luczak, Rafal Milach, Adam Panczuk, Agnieszka Rayss Text by: Sindri Freysson, Hermann Stefansson, Kristin Heida Kristinsdottir, Sigurbjorg Prastardottir, Huldar Breidfjord Editor / curator: Andrzej Kramarz Designer: Ania Nałęcka / Tapir Book Design Language of text: English / Icelandic ISBN: 978-83-927485-8-8 Publisher: Sputnik Photos Print run: 1000

OUT OF PRINT!

AMERICAN DREAM book limited edition (of 45) + 1 PRINT OF YOUR CHOICE, in hand made box
More about the project here.

American Dream 2011 American Dream Photographs: Agnieszka Rayss Text: Agnieszka Rayss, Paulina, Marta, Ania and others. 215x225mm ( hard cover+linen+ foil stamping) 200 pages 78 photographs Hard cover Beautiful design by Ania Nalecka / Tapir Book Design limited edition of 500 copies / incl. 45 numbered

SET OF SPUTNIK PHOTOS BOOKS

AT THE BORDER, PSOPLAAINND, U (sold out!), No1 (sold out!), No2, One, -  Two, Buckle My Shoe, DISTANT PLACE, IS (NOT) sold out!, Stand By

FINE ART PRINTS!

Collector's print by Adam Panczuk from the project "Very hidden people". Print size: 57x70 cm / 22.4x27.5 in. Signed ink print, edition 1/9. More details about the project "Very hidden people" here.

Collector's print by Agnieszka Rayss from the project "Femen warriors". Print size: 80x100 cm / 31.5x39.4 in. Signed ink print, edition 2/9. More details about the project "Femen warriors" here.  POYI winner in 2012!

Collector's print by Michal Luczak from the project "Brutal". Print size: 55x70 cm / 21.6x27.5 in. Signed gelatine print, edition 2/5 + 2AP. More details about the project "Brutal" here.

Collector's print by Jan Brykczynski from the project "Arnes". Print size: 47x60 cm / 18.5x23.6 in. Signed ink print, edition 2/10. More details about the project "Arnes" here.

The collector's print by Andrei Liankevich from his Belarus portfolio. Edition 3/10 Lambda print, 90 cm x 128 cm (35.4 in x 50.4 in), signed.

WYPOZYCZENIE APARATU WIELKOFORMATOWEGO GRAFLEX SPEED GRAFIX!

W ramach pomocy w zdobywaniu pieniędzy na projekt propozycja od naszego kolegi, świetnego portrecisty Marka Szczepańskiego! - wypożyczenie kamery wielkoformatowej Graflex Speed Graphic. Aparat jest w niezłej kondycji i ma bardzo jasną matówkę. Obiektywy są dwa: standardowy 135mm Schneider Xenar - 135mm/4.7 i Schneider Angulon 90mm/6.8. Do aparatu jest pięć kaset formatu 4 x 5 " i kaseta Polaroid 545. Jeśli zaproponowana cena będzie przyzwoita dorzucam trzy ładnunki Polaroid Polapan 55. Jest to aparat, którym pracowało wielu fotografów min ze Sputnika. Rafał Milach fotografował nim na Islandii "In the Car with R" , Jan Brykczyński fotografował swój zwycięzki projekt "The Gardner".

ALBOM.PL book - only ONE copy available

SOLD OUT!

Albom.pl book is the result of "Photographic archaeological expedition to the Polish-Belarusian border area." Album.pl was issued by the Association of Cultural Education WIDOK in 300 copies, not intended to sale. The Association offered us one the last copies to support LOST TERRITORIES project. Thank you, friends!More images and more about the project here.

THE WINNERS by Rafal Milach (rare book) SOLD OUT!

BLACK SEA OF CONCRETE + PRINT SOLD OUT!

BRUTAL book by Michal (rare book!) ONLY ONE COPY AVAILABLE, THE LAST ONE!!
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for collectors and photography lovers. This book became a legend years before it came into being. Seriously.

Katowice Railway Station constructed in 1972 was a high-standard building. Raw concrete constructions were at the time a symbol of modernity and prosperity of Polish Peopleos Republic. Only a decade later neglected building began to fall into ruins.

SOLD OUT!
A ruin in the city center of the biggest, postindustrial coal-mining district in Poland started to live its own life. On one hand it was still a place were people got on and off the trains but on the other it became an area of uncommon "passengers" who didn't have any tickets and never got on any train. They where the ones who created there some kind of a parallel world which existed on the sidelines of normal life.
Katowice Railway Station was destroyed at the beginning of 2011, it was the last significant example of brutalist architecture in Poland.
More about the projecthere