ABOUT ME
LESYA TESLYA
PHOTOGRAPHER
Lesya Teslya is a Ukrainian visual artist whose practice is rooted in photography. Born in 1982 in Kryzhopil, Ukraine, she lived in Paris for nine years and currently lives and works in the Kyiv region.
Teslya’s practice explores the human experience, inner states, and the relationship between people and their surrounding environment. The human body, landscape, and natural objects shape her visual language, appearing independently, interacting with one another, or blurring the boundaries between the human and the natural. Her work engages with vulnerability, presence and absence, boundaries, and transformation.
Working with analogue and digital photography, Teslya combines photographic processes with collage, manual interventions, and experimental techniques. In some works, she incorporates thread, textile, and other materials, taking the photographic image beyond the flat surface and transforming it into an art object.
Teslya began studying photography at the Kyiv School of Photography in 2019 and later continued her education at the MYPH School of Conceptual and Art Photography (2021–2022). In 2025–2026, she is completing a curatorial program with Form in France.
Teslya’s work has been presented in exhibitions and at international art fairs across Ukraine and Europe, including POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair, Hungry Eye Fair Amsterdam, Art Kyiv, and Galerie Joseph in Paris. In 2023, she was selected for the Fresh Eyes International Talents Program, and in 2022 she received the Gold Medal of the National Union of Photographers of Ukraine. Her work has been featured in international photography publications and platforms including PhotoVogue, LensCulture, LFI Magazine, and ARTDOC Photography Magazine.
Her works are held in private collections in Ukraine, Germany, and India.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Photography is a way for me to reflect and engage with the world. I work primarily through intuition. Often, an image emerges in the process before I have fully understood it.
In my photographs, the human presence is expressed through the body, inner states, and its relationship with the surrounding environment. The body, landscape, and natural elements come closer, intersect, and at times almost merge. The boundaries between them become unstable, opening a space for change and transformation.
Faces in my photographs are often concealed or fragmented. As individual identity recedes, the human figure becomes part of a broader image, leaving the photograph open to different interpretations.
This exploration continues through the materiality of photography itself. I work with analogue and digital images, collage, layering, and manual interventions. Thread, textile, and other materials allow me to approach photography not only as an image, but also as an object — something that can be touched, altered, or connected.
EDUCATION
2025–2026
Form Gallery — Curatorial Program, France
2021–2022
MYPH School of Conceptual and Art Photography, Ukraine
2019
Kyiv School of Photography, Kyiv, Ukraine
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & ART FAIRS
2026
REFLECTIONS OF REALITY: Memory, Body, and Landscape — POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair, presented by M Gallery, Berlin, Germany. Hungry Eye Fair Amsterdam — presented by M Gallery, De Kromhouthal,
Amsterdam, Netherlands Survival Rituals — Basel Art Center, Basel Art Week, Basel, Switzerland Art Kyiv — presented by M Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2025
New Voices — Galerie Joseph, Paris, France
2023
ImageNation Paris — Galerie Joseph, Paris, France
ImageNation Milan — Fondazione Luciana Matalon, Milan, Italy
2022
In the Name of Freedom — CHAUSSEE 36 Photo Foundation, Berlin, Germany
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2026
FOTOSLOVO — Honorable Mention, Fine Art (Series), Another Sense of Safety
2023
Fresh Eyes International Talents Program — Selected Artist
2022
Gold Medal, National Union of Photographers of Ukraine — Feel the Warmth
2021
Life Framer — Home Sweet Home, Selected Photographer
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & FEATURES
2026
Another Sense of Safety, Kamira Institute, Second Edition, forthcoming November 2026
2026
Another Sense of Safety, Kamira Institute, Second Edition
2025
PX3 (Prix de la Photographie Paris) — Photobook Publication, Ça Va? Oui, merci
ARTDOC Photography Magazine
2023
ARTDOC Photography Magazine
Iconic Artist Magazine — Iconic Photo Show, Issues N.005 and N.006
2022
MYPH Photobook — Feel the Warmth
LFI Magazine (Leica Fotografie International) — Ukrainian Women Photographers, On the brink
2021–2023
Iconic Artist Magazine — Editors’ Picks
DEHAZED — Selected Online Features
SELECTED EDITORIAL & ONLINE SELECTIONS
PhotoVogue Italia — Editorially Selected Photographs
LensCulture — Selected Works / Online Gallery
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Ukraine, Germany, India