Arnold Mariashin

At eight, Arnold Mariashin (b. 1970) received a LOMO Smena 8M camera, sparking a lifelong passion for photography. His journey was turbulent—separations, denial, even destroying equipment—but love for the medium prevailed.

After graduating from the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Culture with a degree in film directing, he worked in television as a director and creator of computer graphics. In 2003, he left TV for Afisha, Russia’s leading magazine.

By 2008, glossy media felt restrictive. Mariashin embraced artistic analog photography, selling on eBay, where collectors in Europe and the U.S. took notice. His works entered The State Russian Museum.

In 2022, he took a firm anti-war stance and was forced into exile. His second wife, whom he married in 2020, remained in Russia and divorced him unilaterally, seizing his entire archive—negatives spanning 25 years and USB drives with digital files.