ABOUT
Roman Bezjak is a Slovenian-German photographer based in Hamburg. Before studying at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences under Ulrich Mack, he traveled by road to India and China in the early 1980s, returning via the Soviet Union. From the late 1980s until 2000, he worked as a freelance photographer for German publications, primarily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung magazine. Early on, his focus was on Eastern Europe and the CIS states, alongside photographic journeys to South America and the Middle East. In 1996, Bezjak received the German Photography Prize. Since 2000, he has been a professor of documentary photography at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. His first book and exhibition, Socialist Modernism, were published in 2011. Follow-up projects explored the urban topography of Pyongyang, Tashkent, and Skopje, alongside series examining people in public transit. His work has been exhibited at institutions including the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, the Architekturzentrum in Vienna, and the GoEun Museum of Photography in Busan. Bezjak is currently working on a project focusing on European architectural reconstruction.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Archaeology of an Era, Photon Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia (14.10. – 26.11.2021)
2019
Archaeology of an Era, GoEun Museum of Photography, Busan, South Korea (17.08. – 20.11.2019)
2013
SiFest #22, Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy (14.09. – 21.09.2013) [Catalogue]
Galerija Photon, Ljubljana, Slovenia (17.05. – 19.06.2013)
Múzeum Vojtecha Löfflera, Košice, Slovakia (19.01. – 30.01.2013) –German contribution to "European Capital of Culture Košice 2013"
2012
Month of Photography, Design Factory, Bratislava, Slovakia (01.11. – 30.11.2012) [Catalogue]
Fotografski muzej Maribor, Slovenia (31.08. – 30.09.2012) – "as we speak", German contribution to "European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012" [Catalogue]
Robert Morath Galerie, Hamburg, Germany (21.01. – 17.03.2012)
2011
Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany (22.06. – 16.10.2011) [Catalogue]
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Out of Bielefeld, Month of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia (06.11. – 30.11.2025)
Die Gründer, Freelens Galerie, Hamburg, Germany (27.02. – 30.04.2025)
2019–2020
Bilder des Wohnens, Port25 – Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Mannheim, Germany (11.10.2019 – 05.01.2020)
1000 Wirklichkeiten – 100 Jahre GDL/DFA, Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany (09.10. – 13.10.2019)
Archäologie einer Zeit, Palais für aktuelle Kunst, Glückstadt, Germany (03.03. – 14.04.2019)
2018
Street. Life. Photography, Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany (08.06. – 08.10.2018)
Amanet / Vermächtnis. Umbruch in Albanien, Kraftwerk Bille, Hamburg, Germany (09.06. – 17.06.2018)
Sightseeing the Real, Kraftwerk Bille, Hamburg, Germany (09.06. – 17.06.2018)
2017
Fotodoks / Past is Now:
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Priština, Kosovo
Skopje, North Macedonia
2016
Fotodoks / Past is Now:Kulturni centar Beograda, Belgrade, Serbia (17.11. – 15.12.2016)
Hrvatski muzej arhitekture HAZU, Zagreb, Croatia (13.09. – 24.09.2016)
Crnogorska galerija umetnosti „Miodrag Dado Đurić“, Cetinje, Montenegro (16.05. – 10.06.2016)
Gradska Galerija / Akademija Trebinje, Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (20.04. – 05.05.2016)
Museum Zenica, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina (03.03. – 20.03.2016)
Umjetnička galerija Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (30.01. – 26.02.2016)
Satellites and Aliens. Exploding Cities, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Quito, Ecuador (25.09. – 20.10.2016)
Zoom. Architektur und Stadt im Bild, Architekturzentrum Wien, Austria (09.03. – 22.06.2016)
2015
Fotodoks / Past is Now, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany (13.10.2015 – 10.01.2016)Urban Stories (CinEast Festival), Neumünster Cultural Centre, Luxembourg (08.10. – 25.10.2015)
Reframing Identities. Architecture's Turn to History, 1970–90, ETH Zürich, Switzerland (10.09. – 23.10.2015)
Zoom. Architektur und Stadt im Bild, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (02.04. – 22.06.2015)
2014
Konstellationen, Galerie f 5,6, Munich, Germany (13.09. – 18.10.2014)