1962
Martin Roemers is a Dutch photographer whose work is often created far away from the headlines but involves the hottest news topics of today. Roemers already won a few times a World Press Photo award. His work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel, the Financial Times Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.
Roemers likes to work on long-term projects like his portrait series ‘The Never-Ending War’, the project on magacities ‘Metropolis’ or ‘The Eyes of War’ which includes (‘haunting’, Financial Times Magazine, ed. ) portraits from people who were blinded as a result of World War II.

'Metropolis' are colorful shots of street life in the inherently complex world cities bringing life to the theme of humanity's increasing urbanization. Images in which Martin Roemers shows city-people holding on to their human courtyards where there still is cohesiveness. Thus underneath this city violence, there is a human dimension such as the street vendor, the commuter, the passer-by, the market stallholder and other pedestrians. Roemers uses a very rare technique, since every photo has a long exposure time so that the big city’s vitality is shown through the movement of people and traffic while the image literally focuses on the small story in question. From Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Mumbai (India), Kolkata (India), Manilla (Philippines); Karachi, Pakistan; Cairo, Egypt, Buenos Aires, Argentina and many other megacities.

In ‘The Never-Ending War’ Roemers took portraits of 40 World War Two veterans who each carry their own very special history: a Dutch prisoner of war who was in Nagasaki when the atom bomb fell, a German who was in an American POW camp where 1200 died, a Flemish/Belgian nationalist who became an SS officer, the last German survivor of the plot to kill Hitler in 1944. Dutch columnist H.J.A. Hofland described Roemer’s photographs dearly: “Memory takes possession of the face, the eyes focus for no more than a few seconds on infinity and an inaudible voice says: this is what it was like. Look at Martin Roemers’ photographs: for here are the faces of veterans listening to the voice of their memory.”

In 2009 his book “Relics of the Cold War” was published by Hatje Cantz. It includes 73 stark photos of incredible architectural traces of The Cold War that divided for forty years the East and West. Traveling through the countries of former enemies on both sides of the line, Roemers explored and documented underground tunnels, abandoned system control centers, former barracks, rotting tanks and nuclear fallout shelters. 15 works from this series Relics of the Cold War are in the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In his work ‘Trabant. The Final Days of Production - Die letzten Tagen der Produktion’ from 1990, Roemers documented the final production of the Trabant in Zwickau. In the spring of 1991, the final Trabant was fabricated after 34 years of production. This signalled the end of an era: the compact car with a plastic body made in East-Germany since 1957 was the epitome of the Eastern Block car and was well-known beyond the borders of the German Democratic Republic. In the West the Trabi was seen as reactionary and was derided for its technical simplicity. Within the GDR it was unloved and treasured in equal measure, a fixed component of everyday life and a reflection of social status.

His work has been exhibited widely and is held in public, private and corporate collections including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Ford Foundation in New York.


Education
AKI, Academy of Arts, Enschede, The Netherlands

Awards
World Press Photo 2011: 1st prize Daily Life Stories
World Press Photo 2006: 2nd prize Portraits Stories
Photo District News, USA, Notable Photo Books of 2010
Daylight/ CDS Photo Awards 2010, USA, Project Prize: Honorable Mention
Daylight/ CDS Photo Awards 2010, USA, Work-in-Process Prize: Juror Pick
Several prizes in the Dutch 'Silver Camera'
Society for News Design, USA, Annual Creative Competition 2005, Award of Excellence
European Prize of Architectural Photography 2009, Commendation

Nominations
Sony World Photography Awards 2011
Prix Pictet 2010
Bouw in Beeld Prijs 2009, The Netherlands

Selected Exhibitions

2013
Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam

2012
Metropolis, Anstasia Photo, New York, USA
Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam (solo)
Les Rencontres d'Arles, France

2011
City Life in the Urban Age, Museum of Estonian Architecture, Talinn, Estonia, Metropolis
Metropolis 2.0, The Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai
Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen, The Netherlands
World Photography Festival 2011, London, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sao Paulo
World Press Photo 2011, in 100 cities
Gemeente Museum Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands

2010
Krasnoyarsk Museum Center, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, Relics of the Cold War (solo)
Gallery Simulaker, Fotofestival Fotopub, Novo Mesto, Slovenia, Relics of the Cold War (solo)
Willy Brandt Haus, Berlin, Germany, Relics of the Cold War, (solo)
Daylight Awards, Duke University, Center for Documentary Studies, Durham NC, USA
Warzone, Noorderlicht Photofestival, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Saxony, State Chancellery, Dresden, Germany
Fallmauerfall | 61 – 89 – 09, Ephraim-Palais, City Museum Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2009
Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany, Trabant - The Final Days of Production (solo)
City and Industry Museum Ruesselsheim, Germany, Trabant - The Final Days of Production (solo)
Legermuseum, Delft, The Netherlands, Cold War Graveyard (solo)
Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, A tribute to the Trabant (solo)
Gimme Shelter—Bouw in Beeldprijs, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
New Homeland, German Museum of Architecture (DAM), Frankfurt, Germany

2008
Industry Museum Sachsen, Chemnitz, Germany, Trabant - The Final Days of Production (solo)
La tierra: economía, conflicto, naturaleza, Revela Photofestival, Oleiros, Spain
Arbeit und Alltag 1951 – 1992, Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, Germany

2007
Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, The Never-Ending War (solo)

2006
World Press Photo 2006, various cities
Dutch Decade: Photography from The Netherlands, Customs House, Sydney, Australia

2004
Dutch Photographers and International Conflicts, State Museum of the Political History of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia

2003
Legermuseum, Delft, The Netherlands, Kabul, (solo)
Duister, Melkweg Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2002
Brandhaarden — Warzone, The Netherlands Photo Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2001
Noorderlicht Photogallery, Groningen, The Netherlands, Tussen vijandige buren (solo)


Collections

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Legermuseum, Delft, The Netherlands
Kunsthal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands
Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany
Industry Museum Sachsen, Chemnitz, Germany
Stadtmuseum Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Anthony and Beth Terrana Collection, Boston, USA
Ford Foundation, New York, USA

Books (monographs)
The eyes of war, Hatje Cantz Publishers (2012)
Relics of the Cold War, Hatje Cantz Publishers (Ostfildern, 2009)
Trabant. The Final Days of Production / Die letzten Tagen der Produktion, Wasmuth Verlag (Berlin, 2007)
The Never-Ending War / De eindeloze oorlog, QV Publishers (Nijmegen, 2005)
Kabul, Legermuseum (Delft, 2003)
Tussen vijandige buren, Mets & Schilt Publishers (Amsterdam, 2000)
De laatste lichting/ The last batch, Het Apollohuis (Eindhoven, 1996)

Selection of books/catalogues featuring Martin Roemers' work
Visions of Earth, National Geographic (Washington, 2011)
Growth, Prix Pictet, teNeues (Kempen, 2011)
Warzone, Noorderlicht (Groningen, 2010)
Tilt, Breda Photo (Breda 2010)
New Homeland/ Neue Heimat, Architekturbild (Stuttgart 2009)
La tierra: economía, conflicto, naturaleza, Revela (Oleiros, 2008)
Germany since 1945 through the Eye of Dutch Photographers, Flip Bool (Breda, 2008)
Document Nederland, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 2005)
Intruders. Reflections on Art and the Ethnological Museum, National Museum of Ethnology Leiden (Leiden, 2004)