Roman Pyatkovka
Roman Pyatkovka (Роман Пятковка) is a leading Ukrainian photographer known for conceptual photography and his link to the Kharkiv School of Fine Art Photography. He helped develop a style that challenged Socialist Realism, the regime’s dominant photographic and film aesthetic since the 1930s. Unlike the idealized images of Socialist Realism, Pyatkovka and the Kharkiv School offered a more provocative, socially aware look at life. He used overlays and hand-colouring to shape this new approach, pushing artistic boundaries during and after the late 1980s. In 1989 he joined the National Society of Photo Artists of Ukraine (NSPAU).
His work has been shown worldwide, including the Multimedia Art Museum and the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Moscow, the Ken Damy Museum in Brescia, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, The Navigator Foundation in Boston, and ARTOTHEK in Nürnberg.
One notable show features a selection from his large series “Soviet Photo” (2012). The project pairs pages from the state-run Soviet Photo magazine, which ran from 1926 to 1992, with Pyatkovka’s own photographs. As an underground photographer, he juxtaposed official imagery with his work, risking imprisonment. The project invites viewers to rethink this period of history through contrasting images and won him Conceptual Photographer of the Year at the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:05 (CET).