Maxim Zmeyev (b. 1987, Saint Petersburg) is an artist-photographer working at the intersection of virtual worlds and analogue photo processes. A graduate of the Saint Petersburg College of Tourism and Service, he studied journalism at Saint Petersburg State University and completed the Rodchenko School (2021). From 2009 to 2022 he worked as a photojournalist, collaborating with Reuters, AFP and other international outlets to document major sociopolitical events across Russia and Eastern Europe.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 he left the country; recognised as a refugee since 2025, he now lives in Marseille (France). His research focuses on virtual photography, image materiality and post-digital storytelling, combining in-game photographs with kallitype, heliography and other hand-crafted techniques.
Key series include Type 1.5.11., ID 2.100., Tsardom 3.10., Manual 4.60. His work is held in the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM) and in private European collections.
Solo exhibition
2024
Type 1.5.11. Getxophoto International Image Festival
Romo Kultur Etxea , Getxo (ES)
Selected group exhibition
2025
DongGang International Photo Festival
DongGang Museum of Photography, Yeongwol (KR)
Hybrid'Art – Contemporary Art Fair
Espace Gagarine, Port-de-Bouc (FR)
2024
Festival Visions d’exil Censorship
Provence Art Contemporain, Marseille (FR)
Archifoto. Architecture under Construction
La Chambre, Strasbourg (FR)
2023
Internationale Photoszene Cologne Festival, Photography in Progress
Kunsträume der Michael Horbach Stiftung, Cologne (DE)
Small File Photo Festival
The Photographer’s Gallery, London (GB)
Rome art Week, Forgotten place
Millepiani, Rome (IT)
Paper
The European Center, Athens (GR)
Uchi-Soto
SAGE Gallery, Bangkok (TH)
Festival 9ph-Photographie et image contemporaine
Factatory, Lyon (FR)
2021
The 1st international Biennale Art for the Future
Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (RU)
Blazar Young Contemporary Art Fair
Museum of Moscow, Moscow (RU)
The Exhibition of 2 Moscow Art Prize nominees
Media center Zaryadye Park, Moscow (RU)
Time Out of Joint
The Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow (RU)
Osmosis. New aesthetics
Electromuseum, Moscow (RU)
2020
Peacetime
Gorky Park Museum, Moscow (RU)
Creating an environment
Art-Space-Hopping, Moscow (RU)
Publication
2025
Float Photo Magazine
Group Online exhibition «Whispering Shadows»
2024
Der-Greif
Artist Blog (DE)
87 Gallery
TIMES VII: Shelter (GB)
2023
Der-Greif
Guest Room (DE)
See-zeen
Issue #8 (USA)
F-Stop
Issue #119
Residences
2024
Agency of artists in exile
Marseille (FR)
Grants and scholarships
2024
French Institute
Support for Russian artists in exile (FR)
Awards
2020
Finalist of International contest Blurring the Lines
Paris (FR)
Education
2021
Rodchenko Art School
Moscow (RU)
2014
Saint - Petersburg State University Faculty of Journalism
Media designs information technologies, St. Petersburg (RU)
My practice probes the junction of virtual worlds and the material image. I treat video games and virtual universes as both aesthetic and critical media whose visual codes shape narratives, identities and collective imaginaries. By channeling virtual photography—including pictures captured with portable consoles such as the Game Boy Camera and PSP Go!CAM—through hand-crafted processes like kallitype, heliography and other historical techniques, I slow the digital flow and restore corporeality: the pixel becomes an emulsion layer that can be touched, scratched, aged.
In-game photography allows me to study how players’ behaviours reflect society and project back onto real life — and vice versa. I focus on algorithmic structures, databases and regimes of legitimation that operate simultaneously in virtual and physical spaces, permeating and influencing each other. Grounded in contemporary art theory and philosophy, my work traces the evolution of photography in the digital age: from the infinitely copyable file to a fragile print of light. By rendering visions from the virtual tangible, I invite viewers to read them as future archaeological artefacts — evidence of humanity’s search for belonging and memory across networked landscapes.