Emile Ducke (*1994, Munich) is based across Eastern Europe, where he works both on personal projects and assignments for international publications.

He has worked extensively with The New York Times, travelling across Russia and the wider region to cover political change, social issues, and the climate. He has covered Russia’s military build-up in the Arctic, documented the effects of melting permafrost in the polar region, and captured scenes of traditional life in the southern republic of Chechnya. 

In longer-term projects, he has focused on the challenges faced by communities in remote areas in Siberia, with photo-essays published by the Washington Post, National Geographic and Der Spiegel, among others.

His project “Kolyma – Along the Road of Bones” was awarded the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award in 2021. For the photo-essay he travelled along a highway built by inmates of the gulag labour camps in Russia’s Far East, speaking with survivors and seeing how the memory of the tragedy is being reshaped today.