Patryk Jaracz

Patryk Jaracz is a documentary photographer born in Poland in 1990. His work focuses on human rights and their violations, especially in the Eastern European region. While covering this topic during the rigged elections in Belarus in 2020, Patryk was arrested and tortured at the Okrestina 36 detention center in Minsk along with thousands of illegally detained people.

On January 1, 2022, Patryk moved to Kyiv permanently and has been working all over Ukraine since then, documenting the events of war and the lives of those he touched. Until 2020, Patryk worked as an art director and designer in London and Toronto before being removed to be able to photograph and address human rights issues.

Patryk has been awarded the Photo of the Year Award 2023 by Unicef, Press Photographer of the Year at Prix de la Photographie in Paris, Grand Winner at The International Photography Awards 2024, Single Shot Award Winner 2024 at Festival della Fotografia Etica, First Prize in the Photojournalism category at Xposure International Photo Festival, First Prize in the Documentary Photography category at Sarajevo Photography Festival 2024, Gold at Tokyo International Foto Awards 2023 and was a finalist at Barcelona Human Rights Photo Festival 2023.

Patryk’s work has been published in: The Times, ITV (UK), LeFigaro, LCI (France), Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Das Erste, ZDF (Germany), Polska Agencja Prasowa, Vogue, TVN24 (Poland), 20minut, El Pais (Spain), Elle, Suspilne, Zaborona (Ukraine), Ukraine: Book of War Crimes by FotoEvidence (USA).

His works have been used in the Federal Press Conference Building in Germany and in the Willy Brandt Haus in Berlin as part of the Unicef Photo of the Year exhibitions, the accessible exhibition Russian War Crimes submitted by Pinchuk Art Centre, the First Ladies and Gentleman Summit exhibition in Kyiv and the Barcelona Human Rights Photo Festival exhibition, as well as in exhibition displays in the center of Wroclaw.