EDINBURG (Sputnik) — The series tells the story of the last inhabitants of the villages destroyed in the combat zone in Donbass (September 2015). Valery Melnikov shared the victory with French photographer Vincent Gouriou who also won for his Des Famille(s) series.
The winning entries will be exhibited in the Paris National Library in mid-December 2016.
After winning the award, Valery Melnikov said:
“I’m very pleased that my Underground photo series was highly appreciated by the French competition’s jury, and that I’ll be able to show the French people what is going on in Donbass. In my series, I have shown people who hide in the basements of damaged buildings during shelling in Donbass. These are mainly lonely elderly men and women. Some of them decided to stay there and fight to the end, while others simply have nowhere to go. I always try to portray a story to the general public from an unusual perspective”.
Bourse du Talent was organized by the French online magazine Photographie.com in 1998 and aims to support young photographers who specialize in documentary, portrait, fashion, or landscape photography.
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