Maxim Zmeyev (b. 1987, Saint Petersburg) is an artist-photographer working between virtual worlds and analogue processes. From 2009 to 2022 he worked as a photojournalist across Russia and Eastern Europe, collaborating with Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP). In 2022, facing persecution as both a journalist and an artist, he left Russia; recognised as a refugee in 2025, he now lives and works in Marseille, France.
Educated at Saint Petersburg State University (Journalism) and the Rodchenko Art School (2021), Zmeyev shifted from reportage to conceptual, research-driven image-making through Type 1.5.11. (his diploma and first major work of virtual photography inside Fallout 76). His subsequent projects span in-game photography, media archaeology and post-digital storytelling, often translating screen-born images into tactile prints via kallitype, heliography and other hand-crafted techniques; he also experiments with early/portable devices such as the Game Boy Camera.
Exhibitions and festivals include a solo presentation at Getxophoto (Getxo, Spain, 2024), Internationale Photoszene Cologne (Germany), DongGang International Photo Festival (Republic of Korea), and the 1st International Biennale “Art for the Future” (Russia), as well as shows in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Thailand and Russia. Publications include Der Greif, Float Photo Magazine, F-Stop and TIMES VII (87 Gallery, UK). His works are held in the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM) and in private European collections. Support includes the Agency of Artists in Exile (residency, 2024) and the Institut français (grant for artists in exile, 2024).
Solo exhibition
2024
Type 1.5.11. Getxophoto International Image Festival
Romo Kultur Etxea , Getxo (ES)
Selected group exhibition
2025
Art-O-Rama
Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille (FR)
Artspace Bremerhaven
Alte Bürger, Bremerhaven (DE)
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 examines how digital systems organise identity, property and social roles. I treat video games as aesthetic-critical media: structures where code, economy and community shape behaviour. In this space, in-game photography becomes both camera and research instrument. I work with datasets, typologies and rules of construction, then return the virtual to matter through kallitype, heliography and other material processes. The pixel becomes an emulsion layer — a tangible record.
Type 1.5.11. (2021) was the turning point: a typology of 1,500+ player-built shelters in Fallout 76, distilled into five archetypes and a proportional diagram that encodes observed frequencies. ID 2.100. (2023) uses videogame avatars photographed in French ePhoto booths to probe identity, refugee status and bureaucratic image regimes. Tsardom 3.10. (2024–ongoing) critiques imperial narratives in Russian videogames through pixel-based captures on the Game Boy Camera, while Manual 4.60. (2024–ongoing) re-creates in-game manuals via heliography, reflecting on authorship, vernacular images and media archaeology. Across these works I ask how image systems condition belonging, memory and power — and how the virtual can be read as future archaeological evidence of our networked lives.