About
Niels Ackermann is a Swiss photojournalist working for international press since 2007, founding member of agency Lundi13. He lives in Kyiv, Ukraine since 2015. He's also awarded Swiss Press Photographer of the year 2016.
Magazine L’Hebdo selected him in 2015 as one of the 100 young Swiss shaping the future of Switzerland.
After working for four years on youth near Chernobyl for his project The White Angel, published in a book by Les Editions Noir Sur Blanc and rewarded by all of the major swiss photographic awards, Niels now works on Ukraine's decommunisation process. These documentary projects all aim to bring a more nuanced vision of Ukraine by challenging the usual western stereotypes about this country.
Niels also co-developed the project «Genève, sa gueule» an ongoing civic project with the city of Geneva to promote diversity trough a growing serie of portraits and biographic data collection.
He also gives regular conferences and workshops about documentary photography, freelancing and fundings of personal projects.
Aside from photography, Niels also likes to write. He writes a blog named L'oeil de Kiev for Swiss newspaper Le Temps where he relates some strange elements of Ukrainian life seen through the eyes of a Swiss.
© Anna Shumeiko 2015
Clients
Editorial: The New York Times, The Wallstreet Journal, Times.com, Foreign Policy, CNN, Wired, China Newsweek, The Financial Times, Politico, Die Zeit, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, L'Obs, Ouest France, L'Express, Courrier Japon, Le Temps, Die Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Das Magazin, L'Hebdo, L'Illustré, Tages Anzeiger, Die Weltwoche, Migros Magazin, Revue Hemisphere...
Corporate: UNE, LargeNetwork, Solar Impulse, Hublot, City of Geneva, Kyiv City Administration, Parti Démocrate Chrétien (PDC), Parti Libéral Radical (PLR), Swiss Railways (SBB), BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Greenpeace, Volvo Schweiz, Novartis, Paolo Coelho, Bulgari, Migros, Nestle, Swiss Development & Cooperation Agency, Sinomedica, Fenaco, FDDM…
Selected EXHIBITIONS
2017 Looking for Lenin, Coalmine Gallery, Winterthur, Switzerland, curator: Peter Pfrunder
2017 Genève sa Gueule, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland
2017 Looking for Lenin, Les rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France, curator: Peter Pfrunder
2017 The White Angel, Multimedia Arts Museum, Moscow, Russia, curator: Anna Zaitseva
2016 Pingyao International Photo Festival, China
2016 BredaPhoto International photo festival, The Netherlands
2016 Visa Pour L'Image, Prix Rémi Ochlik, Perpignan
2016 La Nuit de l'année, Rencontres photographiques d'Arles, France
2016 LUMIX Festival for Young Photojournalism, Hannover
2016 Paris, Galerie Rue de L'Abbaye (former Magnum Gallery)
2016 Swiss Press Photo 2016, Zurich,
2016 Swiss Photo Awards Zurich, Photobastei 2
2016 Penguin, Slavutych
2016 Genève, sa gueule, Genève
2016 Chernobyl’s children grew up, Kiev
2016 Les Enfants de Chernobyl sont devenus grands,5èmes Nuits de la Photo, La Chaux de Fond
2016 En terrain sensible (collective exhibtion), Médiathèque du Valais, Martigny
2015 Les Enfants de Chernobyl sont devenus grands, Galerie Focale, Nyon
2015 Chernobyl’s children grew up, Sotheby’s, Zurich
2015 Waiting For The Flood, Cultural center of Huaraz, Peru
2015 Genève, Sa Gueule, Geneva, for Ville de Genève
2014 Waiting For The Flood, Jockey Club Lima, Peru (for COP20 climate forum 1-12 dec)
2014 Confrontations Gessiennes de la Photographie, Gex
2014 Exposition sur la femme africaine, Institut Français du Congo, Brazaville
2013 Au Bout du Lac, Palexpo, Geneva
2011 Swiss Press Photo 2011, Swiss National Museum, Prangins
2011 «Le choix de Christine», Gallery Krisal, Geneva
2011 Rezo.ch, pain quotidien, collective exhibition, Centre de la photographie, Geneva
Awards
2017 PDN Award, category reportage (Looking for Lenin)
2016 Visa pour l'Image, Prix de la ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik
2016 Swiss Press Photo, photographer of the year
2016 Swiss Photo Awards, Best reportage
2016 Prix Pictet, Nomination
2015 Mountain of our Future Earth photo award
2015 Prix Focale Ville de Nyon
2015 Fondation BAT Prix Photo 2015 First prize & Audience Prize
2015 Selected by magazine l’Hebdo as one of the 100 young swiss preparing the future of the country for the annual event Forum des 100
2015 Prix Pictet, Nomination
2014 SMArt residency in Huaraz, Peru
2014 Globetrotter World Photo
2010 Swiss Press Award, 2nd place category News
Collections
Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur
Fondation British American Tobacco Switzerland, Boncourt
Musée du Léman, Nyon
Ville de Nyon
Ville de Perpignan
Books
2017 Looking for Lenin. Fuel Publishing, London. by Niels Ackermann & Sebastien Gobert. Forewords by Myroslava Hartmond.
French version published by ed. Noir Sur Blanc, Lausanne
2016 L’Ange Blanc: Les Enfants de Chernobyl Sont Devenus Grands, ed. Noir Sur Blanc, Lausanne, Text by Gaetan Vannay, Forewords by Andrey Kurkov. English version: The White Angel