Patrick Wack

Last week of presale for my upcoming book « Azov Horizons » on @andrefrere_editions website! Link in bio. Grab signed books and limited editions at discounted prices. 152 pages, 87 colour photographs, 24x29cm hardcover, 400 rolls of 120 colour negative, 5 years of work in Ukraine and Russia, beautiful printing at @masmatbaa , art direction and design by @kakkalakkinn , colour grading with Vincent Chéron at @cadreenseine , video design by @headquarter.paris Thank you to all who have helped me along the way. « The images in this book direct our gaze to the roots and visible traces of the war. They are the backstage of an unfathomable horror – for both us and them – on European soil. I hope they whisper to our European consciences that what we believed to be acquired is not immutable. Many trips are still to come; I can no longer imagine a summer without Ukraine. » inland

The pre-sale for DUST is Live. Link in bio You can now preorder your copy of DUST on my publisher's website @andrefrere_editions as well as a limited edition and numbered prints. Those pre-sales will help making sure the book happens so buy it now! The monograph DUST gathers four years of work and two projects by French documentary photographer Patrick Wack shot in the areas of Central Asia known as East Turkistan or Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region under the current Chinese administration. In recent years, the region has been at the centre of an international outcry following the mass-incarceration of its Uyghur population and other Muslim minorities. This body of work captures a visual narrative of the region and is a testimony to its abrupt descent into an Orwellian dystopia. DUST rassemble le fruit de quatre ans de travail effectué par le photographe documentaire Patrick Wack dans la région d’Asie centrale connue sous le nom de Turkestan Oriental ou Région autonome ouïghoure du Xinjiang, son appellation chinoise officielle. Au cours des dernières années, la région a vu les populations turciques musulmanes subir une politique d’incarcération massive, planifiée et organisée par les autorités chinoises. Le travail du photographe commence au tournant de cette rupture historique, offrant un portrait visuel de la région avant, puis pendant sa descente vers la dystopie « orwellienne » que nous connaissons désormais. Many thanks to André Frère for his trust and support on this project. Thank you to Rémi Castets, Dru C. Gladney and Brice Pedroletti for their texts and making this book a unique document. Thank you to @joaolinneu and @fefajardo for their beautiful and insightful design. Thank you to @andriaspring and @juliensyrac for their translation. Video & animation by @olivier_wyart Thank you to my colleagues from @inlandstories and @kova_ari for their support. #patwack #dust #xinjiang #eastturkestan #uyghur #freeuyghur

*Photography Talks 2026* APR-JUN ‘26 Wir sind zurück mit einer neuen Vortragsreihe! Das GOETHE EXIL lädt dieses Mal vier renommierte, dokumentarisch & künstlerisch arbeitende Fotograf:innen nach Hannover ein, die ihre Arbeiten bei uns am Goetheplatz präsentieren werden. *Mark your calendar* Andrzej Steinbach (17.04.) Olgaç Bozalp (08.05) - englisch Andrea Diefenbach (20.05.) Patrick Wack (05.06) - englisch check: 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬.𝐝𝐞 —> Link in bio

« A German General Prepares His Country for War—and the Clock Is Ticking » Story for the Wall Street Journal with words by Gordon Fairclough, WSJ’s world coverage chief. Last fall the WSJ sent me to rainy Lithuania to work on a couple of stories. The review by Germany’s top military officer, General Carsten Breuer, of Germany’s armoured brigade based in Lithuania, the first permanently based abroad since WWII. Breuer is a major proponent of Europe’s rearmament in the face of an ever-more agressive Russian regime. Thank you @margaretekeady

📷 To recap our 2025, we asked Inland photographers to look back on the year and share one image that stood out. We’re closing the series with a photograph by @patwack , taken in May 2025 at Budak Spit, Odessa, Ukraine, during his visit to honor the memory of his late friend, Matthieu Chazal. Once a place of childhood memories and sunny summers, the photograph shows one of the many seaside cabins in the spit that were being torn down. Today, with the war, the coastline has become a militarized front with concrete defenses. © Patrick Wack / Inland ____________________________________________ Patrick’s note: On May 2nd, 2025, I made this photograph on the Budak Spit, ten days into a return to the south of Ukraine, Odesa and the Black Sea. A few months earlier, my friend Matthieu Chazal had passed away. I was back to help organise an exhibition in his memory. It was Matthieu who first brought me to Odesa in the summer of 2023. Along this coast, summer was often lived in these modest cabin compounds, these “bases” as they are called here. In the Soviet times they were originally tied to some institution such as a factory, a collective farm, a port or a youth organisation. In the early 90s many were privatised into small businesses and run semi-informally. They hold childhood memories of sunny summers for many, young loves and first hangovers. Thin walls, curtains for doors, sand creeping across the floor, the sea as the day’s soundtrack. While I was photographing, these cabins were being torn down. The spit is now lined with empty bases, one after another, summer ghost towns. And beyond the doorway, the horizon has changed. Concrete defenses sit where towels and plastic chairs used to be: the waterfront has become a war front. #behindourframes #inlandstories #documentaryphotography

Portraits and artwork commissioned by @cartier for the recording and release of the legendary Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 by pianist @francesco.piemontesi with the Leipzig @gewandhausorchester directed by @manfredhoneck Merci Isabelle! @inlandstories

📸 La mer d’Azov est une petite mer au Nord Est de la mer Noire, bordée en partie par l’Ukraine, en partie par la Russie. En 2019, quand le photographe Patrick Wack (@patwack ) s’y rend pour la première fois, la guerre a déjà commencé: la Crimée a été annexée par la Russie cinq ans plus tôt, et cette mer est l’un des fronts de la guerre que se livrent Kiev et Moscou. Il va retourner photographier ces rives au fil du temps. Ici, c’est à l’été 2021 côté ukrainien, depuis le club Santa Barbara, une boîte de nuit sur le front de mer de Marioupol. Quelques mois plus tard, en février 2022, la Russie envahira l’Ukraine et ce front de mer bombardé deviendra le théâtre de tirs d’artillerie, de débarquements maritimes et la porte d’entrée de l’encerclement progressif de la ville. 👉 Que vous inspire cette photographie ? Dites-le nous en commentaire ! Vous pouvez retrouver tout l’été l’exposition “Azov Horizons” à l’abbaye de Montmajour, à Arles, aux Rencontres de la photographie. 🔗Abonnez-vous à la newsletter de Louie Media (lien en bio), pour retrouver les interviews d’artistes et de commissaires pendant Les Rencontres et la rubrique Empreinte qui se focalise sur une œuvre. #arles2025 #rencontresarles #patrickwack #santabarbara #merazov #ukraine #marioupol Cet été, Louie vous invite à plonger dans l’œil de photographes dont les œuvres sont exposées aux @rencontresarles .

Heading back to Ukraine tomorrow. A few low-res previews from last April’s images out of Kherson, Odesa, Akkerman and the seashore. Thanks @igor_ishchuk @inlandstories

Iranian artist @nazaninpouyandeh photographed in her studio for the relaunch of legendary @citymaginternational

Help me help Svitlana and her Ukrainian village of Luch. I’ve just created my first fundraiser and edited my first video (shot on my old iPhone) so I can try and raise some money for Svitlana. My name is Patrick Wack, I’m a French documentary photographer working with topics related to geopolitics, national identity and minorities. I’ve been working around the Azov and Black Seas since 2019 and since 2023, I have among other things been documenting the destruction caused by the Russian invasion in Southern Ukraine. In the summer of 2024, thanks to my friend - Ukrainian photographer @igor_ishchuk - I first visited the rural settlement of Luch, a village in the Mykolaiv region. Luch was heavily damaged during the Russian invasion in early 2022 and over the following months during which it was located right on the frontline. Most of its 1000 inhabitants fled during that time. One of them didn’t. Svitlana Ginzhul is the village’s deputy and even though she is not compensated for her work, she’s the one organising and caring for the reconstruction of Luch’s Palace of Culture. In a village like Luch located in the middle of a very rural area, the local palace of culture represents the center of community life. This is where young and old gather to chat, eat, paint, sing, dance and watch performances. In a destroyed village like Luch, to which people are slowly coming back and trying to rebuild their homes, the house of culture is where they can meet and forget for a moment the tragedy they are going through. Svitlana is working at salvaging what can be salvaged of the house of culture and that comes first by repairing its roof. She is one of these selfless people that care more for others than for herself, one of these everyday heroes who reveal themselves in tough times. I will be back in Luch this August and I want to help Svitlana by giving her money I’ve collected thanks to my network. Please help me help Svitlana by donating a bit money. The link to the fundraiser can be found in my bio. Thank you

🇰🇿 Leur communauté restée dans l’actuelle province chinoise du Xinjiang est victime de la politique d’assimilation forcée des autorités de Pékin. Les 300 000 Ouïgours du Kazakhstan, eux, émigrés de longue date dans ce pays frontalier de la Chine, peuvent parler leur langue, pratiquer leur religion – l’islam – et vivre leur culture librement. Rencontre avec certains d'entre eux. 1. Ce duo de danseuses vient de se produire dans le théâtre ouïgour d’Almaty (2,2 millions d’habitants, dont 5 à 6 % d’Ouïgours). Fondé en 1934, c’est le seul théâtre professionnel au monde lié à cette culture. 2. À Jarkent, village situé à 30 kilomètres de la frontière chinoise, un invité danse lors d’un mal-guruch, une cérémonie qui se tient chez la famille d’une future épouse la veille de son mariage. 3. À Bayseit, village ouïgour de l’oblys (province) d’Almaty, limitrophe du Xinjiang, un élève pose lors de la fête de son école. Comme celle-ci, une cinquantaine d’écoles dispensent dans le pays leurs cours en ouïgour, idiome de la famille des langues turques. 4. Un coiffeur de la Uigurskaya ulitsa, "la rue ouïgoure" d’Almaty. Les Ouïgours sont le cinquième groupe ethnique du Kazakhstan (après les Kazakhs, les Russes, les Ouzbeks et les Ukrainiens). Ils sont concentrés autour de cette ville, où leurs ancêtres se sont fixés après avoir émigré de Chine à la fin du XIXe siècle, puis à la suite des campagnes de répression en Chine (années 1950 et après 1990). 5 et 7. Ce jeune homme a été embauché pour faire le service lors d’un meshrep dans la ville de Shelek. Ces rassemblements – en pleine renaissance au Kazakhstan, mais interdits en Chine – sont réservés aux hommes. Les participants assistent à des spectacles de danse, concerts, tout en dégustant des mets traditionnels (des samsa, chaussons à la viande). 6. L’homme attablé est le zhigit beshi (chef communautaire) de Ketmen, un village du Kazakhstan très proche de la Chine. Ici, la population est à 90 % Ouïgoure. © @patwack Retrouvez le portfolio complet "L'autre patrie des Ouïgours", dans le nouveau GEO de juillet "Découvrir la Bretagne à pied", en kiosque. #ouigours #kazakhstan #culture #repression #peuple #religion

Today is the relaunch of legendary @citymaginternational for which I photographed artist @kornel_zezula in his Parisian studio. Long live the new @citymaginternational !