Sasha Arutyunova
Sasha Arutyunova (Moscow, 1988) is a Brooklyn-based photographer and director whose work is grounded in sensitive storytelling. Characterized by an atmospheric visual language, her photographs strive to elevate the mundane, draw out connections between people and their natural environment, and convey nuanced perspectives of complex relationships.
Central to her practice is a long-term project photographing her family, scattered across Russia, Armenia, and the United States. Through portraits and cinematic details, she seeks to understand their evolving immigrant stories and the dissimilar cultural contexts in which their lives take place. Shelter, her documentation of the 2020 pandemic lockdown in New York City, was published by TIS books in 2021 and is included in MoMA’s institutional library. Finibusterrae, her series documenting a year in the lifecycle of the Salento olive tree amidst ecological crisis, was published in Robida 11 in 2025.
Arutyunova’s work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and TIME. Her work has also been exhibited by the Houston Center of Photography; The Humid, Atlanta; Filter Photo, Chicago; HayArt Contemporary Art Centre, Yerevan; and the OMNEFEST Biennial and Museo Casa Giorgione, both in Italy. She was named one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2017, a Finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Prize in 2023, and for the Lucie Foundation Scholarship in 2024. Arutyunova has been honored in American Photography, the PDN Photo Annual, Magenta Foundation Flash Forward, and ADC Young Guns. She was an artist in residence at Spruceton Inn in West Kill, New York, and at Transizioni, in Lecce, Italy.
Photo by Evgeniy Rein