Biography
Patryk Jaracz is a documentary photographer and filmmaker born in 1990 in Poland. His work focuses on human rights and their violations in Eastern Europe. While reporting on the 2020 fraudulent presidential election in Belarus, he was arrested and tortured at the Okrestina detention centre in Minsk alongside thousands of other detainees.
On January 1, 2022, he moved permanently to Kyiv. Since then he has been working across Ukraine, continuously documenting the war and the lives shaped by it.
Until 2020 he worked as an art director and designer in London and Toronto before leaving the industry to pursue photography and focus on human rights issues.
Awards
Patryk has been recognised with 2023 Photo of The Year Award by Unicef, Press Photographer of The Year at the Prix de la Photographie in Paris, Grand Winner of The International Photography Awards 2024, Single Shot Award Winner 2024 of the Festival della Fotografia Etica, First prize in Photojournalism at the Xposure International Photo Festival, First prize in Documentary Photography at the Sarajevo Photography Festival 2024, Gold in Tokyo International Foto Awards 2023, Third Place in News Photography category at Istanbul Photo Awards 2025 and a finalist of Barcelona Human Rights Photo Festival of 2023. Patryk is also a laureate of Polish Press Agency award 2025.
Publications
Patryk’s work has been published by numerous media around the world, including: The Times, ITV, BBC (UK), LeFigaro, LCI, AFP (France), Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Das Erste, ZDF (Germany), Polish Press Agency, Vogue, TVN24 (Poland), 20minutos, El Pais (Spain), Elle, Suspilne, Zaborona (Ukraine), NBC News, CNN, The National (USA) Ukraine: A war crime book by FotoEvidence (USA).
His work has been exhibited in Federal Press Conference building of Germany and Willy Brandt Haus in Berlin as part of Unicef Photo of The Year exhibition, World touring Russian War Crimes exhibiton by Pinchuk Art Centre, First Ladies and Gentleman Summit in Kyiv exhibition and Barcelona Human Rights Photo Festival exhibition as well as solo exhibitions in Wrocław City centre.