Vladislav Semenov (*1984) is a Swiss-based photographer working internationally.
Born in Russia, he grew up amid the turbulent transformations of the post-Soviet 1990s before emigrating to France as a teenager. After studying and living in Paris, he returned to Moscow, where he worked for several years before eventually settling in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
Initially drawn to documentary writing and journalistic essays, Semenov began photographing in the mid-2000s, producing his first visual “sketches” of the French city of Lyon with Soviet-era cameras. His bicultural perspective later gave rise to his first long-term project, a photographic journey across Russia and other post-Soviet republics.
At the intersection of urban observation and psychological portraiture, Semenov’s photography offers a humanist exploration of what lies beneath the surface of everyday life. Attentive to those who dwell in the margins — but also to the quiet beauty of the overlooked — his work transforms what might seem ordinary or fragile into something luminous.
He currently lives and works in Switzerland, where he continues to develop several long-term projects.