Alina Viktorivna Smutko (, born 1992) is a Ukrainian documentary photographer and photojournalist.
Biography She graduated from the Faculty of Philology and Journalism of Poltava V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University (2014, bachelor's degree), and the School of Journalism and Communications of the Ukrainian Catholic University (2016, master's degree).
In 2016–2019, she was in the occupied Crimea as a freelance reporter for the Ukrainian bureau of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe. In 2019, Russia declared her persona non grata for her professional activities and banned her from entering Crimea and Russia for ten years.
During 2021–2023, she worked in the Suspilne Novyny team. She covered events in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast, Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Her work has been published on Hromadske, Focus, Deutsche Welle, BBC, Radio Liberty, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Politico, Der Spiegel, National Geographic, The Independent, The Guardian, Reuters.
Since 2013, she has been working with Reuters. She is the author of illustrations and several book covers, including those of Choven Publishing House.
Exhibitions Solo exhibitions 2017 – "The Island C" in Crimean House, Kyiv, Ukraine 2019 – "The Island C" on Koktebel Jazz Fest 2019, Kyiv, Ukraine 2020 – the exhibition with the LaVita Palliative Care Fund, Kyiv, Ukraine 2022 – "New hybrid deportation" in La Chambre, Strasbourg, France 2022 – "New Hybrid Deportation" under the auspices of Graph CMI Association, Bram, France
Group exhibitions 2015 – the exhibition of The Day newspaper photo contest, Kyiv, Ukraine 2019 – "The Dream About White Socks" on Nikon Photo Contest 2019 exhibition, Tokyo, Japan 2020 – the exhibition "Human Rights Situation in Crimea" at the Globsec Security Forum, Bratislava, Slovakia 2022 – "New hybrid deportation" at the First Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform, Zagreb, Croatia 2022 – the exhibition at The CinEast Festival, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 2022 - "New hybrid deportation" on The Fotofestiwal Łodz, Lodz, Poland 2022 - the exhibition of La-Presse.org in Leipzig, Germany 2022 – the exhibition at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA 2022 – the screening at Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay 2022 – the screening of Georgian and Ukrainian war photography by Tbilisi Photo Festival, Tbilisi, Georgia 2022 – the exhibition Shoulder To Shoulder: Ukrainian War Photography in public places in Odesa, Ukraine 2022 – the screening of female Ukrainian photographers at the Sune Jonsson Centrum for dokumentarfotografi, Umea, Sweden 2022 – "The Thin Line" at Safehouse 2 in Peckham, London, UK 2022 – the exhibition "The Thin Line" and screening of War Photography in Montpellier, France 2022 – "The Thin Line" in Ottensheim, Austria 2022 – the screening at The Bayeux Award festival, Bayeux, France 2022 – "Focus on Ukraine", Hoorn, The Netherlands 2022 – the exhibition at the Estacao Imagem festival, Coimbra, Portugal 2022 - “The New Abnormal” at PHOXXI, the temporary House of Photography of Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany 2022 – "The Thin Line" at The Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark 2022 – the exhibition in VEMU Estonian Museum, Toronto, Canada 2022 – the exhibition in OKAPI Galerii, Tallinn, Estonia
Awards 2015 – the photo contest of The Day newspaper, Kyiv, Ukraine (shortlist) 2019 – one of the «12 RFE/RL Women Who Make Headlines», Prague, Czech Republic 2019 – Corporate Photo Contest RFE/RL, Prague, Czech Republic (winner) 2019 – Nikon Photo Contest 2019, Tokyo, Japan (silver prize)
References