Dmitry Markov (photographer)

Dmitry Alexandrovich Markov (Дмитрий Александрович Марков; 23 April 1982 – 16 February 2024) was a Russian journalist and photographer.

Dmitry Markov was born on 23 April 1982, in Pushkino.

He moved to Pskov as a child.

He went to engineering college.

During this period, Markov acquired his first camera.

According to himself, he studied photography with Alexander Lapin.

Markov worked with community organizations in the mid-2000s.

Until 2007, he worked as a photographer and journalist for the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.

Markov also worked as a photojournalist for Takie Dela and Meduza.

Markov began participating in street protests in 2012.

On 2 February 2021, he was detained near the Moscow City Court, where he came to support Alexei Navalny.

The photographer was taken to the Kosino-Ukhtomsky police station, where he took a picture of a security officer wearing a bulletproof vest and a balaclava, sitting under a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This photo went viral on social media and became a source of memes.

A few days later, the only signed author's print of the photograph was sold at a charity auction on Facebook for 2 million rubles.

Markov promised to divide the amount between OVD-Info and the Apology of Protest, two organizations engaged in helping detainees at political rallies.

Markov died in Pskov on 16 February 2024, coincidentally on the same day as Navalny.

He was 41.

In 2015, Markov received a grant from Getty Images and Instagram for his documentary photography.

In 2016, he became the first Russian participant and one of 15 photographers from 15 countries who participated in the iPhone 7 advertising campaign "Apple's Taken on the iPhone".

Markov's work chronicled everyday life in various regions of Russia.

Meduza compared his photographs to unofficial Soviet photographs, which showed life without regard for ideological objectives.

The composition of his photographs often resembled a theatrical mise-en-scène.

He often focused on the contrast between the official and the private, the artificial and the natural, the planned and the accidental.

Markov preferred using a smartphone to take pictures and mainly posted them to Instagram.

He published three books of his photography.

His work was shown around the world, with exhibitions in Moscow, Paris and New York City.

After overcoming drug addiction, he began to do volunteer work.

He worked in an orphanage and for Rostok, a charity that helps children with disabilities integrate into society.