The Leica Society is proud to announce the recipient of the first annual LHSA Photography Grant: Ksenia Kuleshova. The announcement was made during the 50th anniversary annual meeting in Chicago at the Saturday night closing banquet. Ksenia will receive the first-ever LHSA Grant in the amount of $5,000. She was chosen from over sixty grant proposals, submitted from all over the globe. LHSA wishes to thank the Photography Grant committee and our distinguished jury, Maggie Steber, Craig Semetko, and Peter Turnley for making this special event possible.
Ksenia Kuleshova (born 1988 in Kaluga, Russia) graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University) with a degree in public relations. She has completed her Bachelor in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hannover and is currently enrolled in the master’s program “Photographic Studies” at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Dortmund.
Ksenia is also the winner of the PDN Photo Annual Prize 2017 (Student category), VG-Bild Scholarship recipient, exhibiting Artist at Belfast Photo Festival 2017 and Schömberg Photo Festival 2017. In 2017 she was selected as a representative for all international scholarship recipients at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, DIE ZEIT and ZEIT leo. She is always inspired by the strength of people’s characters and a passion for life, love, the aesthetics of beauty, art and traveling. Ksenia is always open to new experiences, enjoys every moment of her life, and tries to never stop developing her personality. The progress is important, but even more significant is harmony.
Below are a few of the images from her project, Abkhazia, for which she will use the grant funds to further develop and bring to publication.
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- 2016.The National Dance Emsemble „Caucasus„ before a performance.
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- 2016, Kamani village. Festivities during The water is blessed in accordance with tradition of a Christian. January 19th
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- 2016,Duripsch village. Etluhov Islam (38) is celebrating his horse racing victory. Important national sports events take place twice a year in Abkhazia: May 9th (Victory Day in the USSR celebrating the end of the WWII) and September 30th (Georgian-Abkhazian war).
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- 2016. Football is very popular among young people. Abkhazia won 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup
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- 2016, Sukhum. Aditsa Tsikytania, a socialite, fashion blogger, and lawyer in her living room
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- 2016. Suchum. Ruined buildings, Sukhum
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- 2017, Suchum. Portrait of Putin in one of the government offices.
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- 2017, Eshera. The bed of the deceased person by tradition remains untouched for a year.
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- 2017, Eshera. Potatoes on the floor.
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- 2016. A 7-year-old Sadya Sabekiya in her room.
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- 2016. On my way to the lake Ritsa I passed through the village Bzyb and noticed the sign “Zoo at home”. I saw an unattached lion licking his lips and a woman with a child. “Don’t worry, the lion has just eaten!” – the owner said!
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- 2016. Joy of snow. It‘s been almost 8 years since the last big snowfall in Sukhum
The selection process included two stages. A committee screened each application and chose 15 finalists to forward to our distinguished jury, which included Maggie Steber, Craig Semetko, and Peter Turnley.
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