He was left with four minor sons, his common-law wife and elderly parents.
On April 1, after a long search near the village of Guta Mezhigorska in the Kyiv region, police found the photographer and documentarian Max Levin dead.
Maxim, accompanied by Alexei Chernyshev, a serviceman and former photographer, had gone to Guta Mezhigorsk on March 13 to document the aftermath of Russian aggression. They left the car and went in the direction of the village of Moshun. Contact with both men has since disappeared.
It later became known that hostilities had broken out in the area where Max was going to work.
The whereabouts and fate of Alexei Chernyshev have not yet been established.
Max Levin was born on July 7, 1981, in the Kiev region. Since the age of 15, he dreamed of becoming a photographer. As a young man, Maxim attended the photoclub and took pictures with an SLR "Kiev-98". After school, he studied computer systems engineering at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and worked as a photojournalist. He worked as a photojournalist, documentary photographer and cameraman for many Ukrainian and international publications.
Maxim collaborated with Reuters, BBC, TRT World, Associated Press, Hromadske. His photos have been published by Wall Street Journal, TIME, Breaking news Poland, EU AGENDA, World news, The Moscow Time, Korrespondent.net, ELLE, TV-24, Radio Bulgaria, Ukraine Crisis Media center, Vatican news, Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Most of his documentary projects are related to the war in Ukraine. "Every Ukrainian photographer dreams of making a photo that will stop the war," the journalist explained.Together with colleague Markiyan Liseiko, Levin founded the AFTER ILOVAISK afterilovaisk.com project dedicated to the military in 2014 to preserve and rethink the meaning of the events of August 2014 by the military, their families, and Ukrainian citizens in general. Maxim was one of those who managed to get out of the Ilovaysk cauldron.
In addition to his journalistic work, he created dozens of photo and video projects for humanitarian organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UN, UNICEF, OSCE, and UN Woman.