Emerald Pallas's cat kitten (manul), 2019

Elena Mashkova  

Elena Mashkova is a visual artist, designer, and expedition photographer whose practice connects science, travel research, and environmental storytelling. She has spent the past three years studying life drawing, watercolor, and applied painting at the Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Design and Applied Arts.

Elena's work is defined by a rare dual perspective: a professional risk and crisis management leader on one side, and an explorer and visual narrator on the other. She photographs and creates visual projects during expeditions to protected territories in Russia, Mongolia, Spain, Nepal, Brazil, and Peru, and through voyages on iconic sailing ships such as Kruzenshtern, Sedov, Mir, Nadezhda, and Khersones. Her visual language combines documentary precision with emotional attentiveness—an aesthetic shaped by fieldwork, observation, and the ethics of witnessing.

Her core themes are sailing ships, Akhal-Teke horses, wild cats, birds of prey (including small owls), flowers, and the nomadic cultures of Mongolia and Russia. She also collaborates with scientific teams, including expeditions in Mongolia focused on studying and protecting wild cats, and her images are used for educational and conservation purposes in museums, nature reserves, and public programs. In 2025, her eco-poster “A Trap Does Not Choose. A Trap Is Insatiable" became a semifinalist of the Golden Turtle competition in the “Wildlife Conservation" category.

Elena Mashkova is a full member of key professional communities, including the Russian Geographical Society, the Creative Union of Artists of Russia, the Marine Art Club, and the St. Petersburg Photo Hunters Club (LOOiR). She regularly gives public talks and lectures and shares her work with educational institutions and conservation organizations. Her practice advocates for more respectful, “good-neighbor" relationships between humans and wildlife—turning travel and research into images that are both visually compelling and ethically grounded.