Sergey Vaganov

Sergey Vaganov is a 63-year-old retired orthopedic traumatologist and renowned photojournalist from Donetsk, Ukraine. Born in the Kazakh SSR to a military family, he spent his childhood and youth in Mariupol. After transitioning to journalism, he gained international recognition for his impactful photography, including a notable image of a miner following a mining disaster that was ranked among the best journalistic photographs by MSNBC. Vaganov and his wife, Irina Gorbaseva, faced the horrors of war firsthand as they endured 18 days of bombardment in Mariupol before escaping the siege, carrying with them only the memories of destruction and loss.