Anglo-American University in Prague MgA. Björn Steinz
Letenska 5, Prague 1
Björn Steinz is a photographer and educator based in Prague, where he has lived and worked since 1994. He is represented by Panos Pictures, London.
Born in Oberursel im Taunus, Germany, he began photographing for a local newspaper as a teenager in the late 1980s — a practice that sparked a love for photography and became the driving force behind all that came after.
His path into serious documentary work was accelerated by direct experience: volunteering in refugee camps during the Yugoslav Wars and extensive travel through Latin America confronted him early with questions of displacement, memory, and survival.
Guided by his mentor Branko Popović — a Sarajevo photographer displaced by the war, whom he met in Frankfurt — he made his way to the Department of Photography at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), where he completed his Master of Arts in 1999.
His work focuses on marginalised communities, historical memory, and the social transformations of Central and Eastern Europe.
Over the years he has documented Roma communities across the continent, made multiple expeditions to the Russian region of Yakutia in deep winter, and spent two decades tracing the aftermath of the Bosnian War through the story of one refugee — a project called Finding Elvis.
His most recent long-term series, Silent Landscapes (Stille Landschaften), explores the experience of the Sudeten Germans through his own family history and the landscapes of the former Sudetenland straddling today’s Czech-German border.
Alongside his practice, he spent two years as Assistant Professor at Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea, an experience that deepened his engagement with questions of cultural difference and visual literacy.
He is currently teaching at the Anglo-American University in Prague, where he has taught Documentary Photography, Visual Culture, Video Storytelling, and Photojournalism since 2012.
His photographs have appeared in Die Zeit, Stern, Du, GEO Special, The Guardian, National Geographic, and publications of the Open Society Foundations, among others.
Selected exhibitions:
- 2025 · “The Eye in Art 1900–2025” · Museum Kampa, Prague, 28 June – 12 October 2025
- 2023 · “Žižkov 1994–1996” · Solo exhibition, Reunion Gallery, Prague
- 2021 · “un·vor·her·seh·bar | 2020” · Czech Press Photo Exhibition, National Gallery Prague
- 2017 · “Kmeny 90” · Group exhibition, Moravian Gallery; curated by Vladimír 518
Specializations
Documentary Photography, Visual Culture, Photojournalism, History of Photography, Visual Communication
Publications & Other Activities
- Panos Pictures, London; National Geographic, Wahington DC; Open Society Foundations,
- New York; Polyglott, Hamburg; dpa (German Press Agency), Frankfurt; FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Frankfurt;
- Sueddeutsche Zeitung, München; Die Welt, Berlin; Stern, Hamburg; NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Zürich;
- The Financial Times, Hamburg; Newsweek Japan, Tokyo; DU – Das Kulturmagazin, Zürich; Elle Men China, Beijing; Instinkt, Prague; Tyden,
- Prague Reflex, Prague; Die Zeit, Hamburg; Der Spiegel, Hamburg; ADAC Reisemagazin, München