Aleysa Malskaya
Millions on Maidan
Millions on Kiev's main square, or main "Maidan" and down Khreschatik Street on the night that the Ukrainian Supreme Court announced their ruling that the second round of the presidential elections were invalid.
Viktor Yuschenko
Viktor Yuschenko on stage on Maidan surrounded by his family and bodyguards, following the ruling by the Supreme Court.
Special Forces
Special Forces erected a barrier to keep the Presidential Administration building free of protesters. The first days of the protests were tense, as the Ukrainian military had yet to take sides. People came with flowers and ribbons to convince the troops to join them.
Volunteers with food
Volunteers with food, medicine, clothes, blankets, mobile phone chargers, warm cars and almost everything else imaginable came to support the people protesting and living on Maidan. Surprisingly, alcohol was nowhere to be found.
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Aleysa Malskaya graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in Education as a Certified Teacher of English. Starting her career as an international model, Alesya then decided to move behind the camera, graduating from the Moscow Academy of Photography at NIKFI. Aleya’s studio work with advertising stills and portraits earned her a series of accolades for her artistic insight. She established herself as a freelance photographer for major Russian glossy magazines, and then moved on to independent magazine conceptualization and design.
Alesya's naturally artistic approach to photography frees her work from framed bounds of photojournalism, allowing the beauty of the moment to tell the story.
Returning to Kyiv from her current home in Moscow to vote on the 12th of November 2004, the passion of the people protesting in her homeland inspired Alesya to capture the events that ultimately lead to a new beginning of Ukrainian history. In this amazing series of photographs she charts the faces and characters that changed the history of an entire nation.