Maxim Zmeyev

Maxim Zmeyev (1987) is a Russian artist and photojournalist who now lives and works in France.

Maxim Zmeyev studied journalism at Saint Petersburg University before working as a photographer, covering sensitive political events in Russia and across the post soviet countries. In 2021, alongside his professional activities, he obtained a degree in artistic photography from the Rodchenko School in Moscow. In 2022, he left Russia in the context of war and settled in France, pursuing a photographic practice. In Russia, he became known for his collaboration with activist artist Piotr Pavlenski, documenting radical and politically charged performances between 2012 and 2014. He stands in the lineage of artists who made the body a territory of resistance. His images have entered contemporary visual memory, echoing the works of artists whose photographs of struggle, desire, death, wounded bodies or symbolic suffering, marked a whole generation and shaped iconic images of the twentieth century.