Sasha Kurmaz’s Red Horse wins the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award

Red Horse by Ukrainian artist Sasha Kurmaz is a thought-provoking, diaristic journey into warfare and its illustration

An artist born and based mostly in Kyiv, Sasha Kurmaz began his collection Red Horse in 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mixing documentary images with Kurmaz’ notes, discovered pictures and supplies picked up off the road, the work is subjective and private, a chronicle of warfare which questions how others understand and perceive such reviews. The e book, designed by Nicolas Polli and revealed by Éditions Images Vevey, is a few 800 pages lengthy, printed on skinny papers and suggesting one thing pressing but unrelenting; it was the unanimous winner of the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award this yr, judged by artist Jermaine Francis, V&A Parasol Foundation Curator of Women in Photography and author Fiona Rogers, and BJP editor Diane Smyth.

“The Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award is an incredible honour for me,” mentioned Kurmaz. “Red Horse is not just a photography book, it is a deeply personal story of my life, documented and embodied through artistic means. Therefore, to see it resonate at such a high level is an overwhelming and profoundly moving moment for me. I am immensely grateful to the jury for this recognition, as well as to express my sincere gratitude to the whole team of Images Vevey for their trust, support, and shared vision in bringing this book to life.”

“Sasha Kurmaz’s Red Horse is a deeply personal and urgent reflection on war and the ways it reshapes both individual lives and collective memory.,” commented Rogers. “Through a striking use of collage, Kurmaz evokes the fragmentation and instability of life amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, assembling visual traces of his own experience into a form that feels at once chaotic and profoundly human. The result is a moving and visually compelling work – quietly powerful in its politics, and resonant in its emotional depth. A truly outstanding winner.”