About

The photographic work of Roger Weiss delves deeply into contemporary Anthropic identity. Weiss, a Swiss photographer, graduated summa cum laude from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Italy, reelaborates human bodies through fragmentations, hybridisations, dilations, and photographic reconstructions, to reveal the archetypal form of the human being.

His work has been exhibited at exhibit spaces and art fairs in Europe and the US including: Ohsh Projects, London (UK), Gallery Sèbastien Lepeuve, Clichy (FR), Snap! Orlando Gallery, Orlando (US), Limonaia di Villa Strozzi, Florence (IT), Museo del Barocco (IT), Gervasuti Foundation, Venice (IT), Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut, Heidelberg (DE), Kulturzentrum Alte Kaserne, Winterthur (CH).
He has several publications in books and leading trade magazines including: The Opéra, Kerber publisher, book (DE), The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, Josef Weiss Private Press, book (CH), Doppelgänger, Image of the Human Being, Gestalten publisher, book (DE), Schön! Magazine (UK), Carnale Magazine (IT), Digit! Magazine (DE), Blink Magazine (Korea), and interviews including Exibart (IT), ArtsLife (IT), i-D (UK), Dazed (UK), Vogue Italia (IT), RSI (CH), NY ARTS (USA). His collaborations include brands such as Apple, Enterprise Japan, Amina Muaddi and Wolford.
From 2017 to 2020 he was the art director of Collectible DRY magazine.

Portrait

Selected Shows

Group Show: Ohsh Projects
Liquify
London, UK
co-curated by Jon Baker and OHSH Projects

Art Fair: MIA Milan Image Art Fair
LOOKING AT HER
Paola sosio contemporary art milan, IT
Curated by DOMENICO DE CHIRICO

Group Show: FUMES AND PERFUMES
FUMES AND PERFUMES 9.0
Stuttgart, DE (Catalogue)

Group Show: Gallery SÈBASTIEN LEPEUVE
21
Clichy, FR

Group Show: Museo Regionale della Bonifica di Cà Vendramin
L’energia della creatività
Rovigo, IT
Curated byi Melania Ruggini

Group Show: Limonaia di Villa Strozzi
Diari Urbani
Florence, IT
curated by Chiara Massini

Group Show: Museo del Barocco
LA BELLEZZA SOSPESA TRA VISIONE E REALTà
Noto, IT (catalogue)
curated by Chiara Massini

Art Fair: Photissima Art Fair
Welcome to the jungle!
Torin, IT
Curated by Famiglia Margini gallery Milan, IT

Solo Show: PArCo | Padiglione Arte Contemporanea
Cyclical Time
Casier, IT
Curated by Chiara Massini

Group Show: Gervasuti Foundation
SCREAMING SCREEN
Venice, IT

Solo Show: Association Oltre la Moda, Spazio Luigi Salvioli artist representatives s.r.l. LULÙ
Milan, IT
Curated by Luigi Salvioli

Solo Show: Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut
Sospension
Heidelberg, DE
Curated by Jakob J. Köllhofer

Group Show: Kulturzentrum Alte Kaserne
Start 2
Winterthur, CH
Curated by Iren Tanner

Selected Artwork

Hysteria
Human Dilatations
Flat Humans
Genealogy of a Body
Survey of Human Map
Intimate Archive
Cyclical Time
Be Two
I am Flesh

Selected Interviews

Magazine: Collater.al
LE HUMAN DILATATIONS DI ROGER WEISS
7 July 2023, IT
Text by Giorgia Massari

Blog: Exibart
OTHER IDENTITY #49. ALTRE FORME DI IDENTITÀ CULTURALI E PUBBLICHE: ROGER WEISS
Issue 49, 17 feb. 2023, IT
Interviewer: Francesco Arena

Newspaper: ArtsLife
ROGER WEISS: RIELABORARE IL CORPO ALLA RICERCA DEL SUO ARCHETIPO
the cultural revolution online, 19 Jan. 2023, IT
Interviewer: Rebecca Delmenico

Magazine: Carnale Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Issue 3, 10 pages + a limited edition poster of 100,
size 203x140cm. Sept. 2022, IT
Interview by Lorenzo Ottone

Magazine: SFG Magazine
THERE ARE NO IDEAS THAT ARE NOT CON- NECTED WITH PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, DESIRES AND FEARS
12 Feb. 2022, UA
Interviewer: Sergey Gutakovsky
Translation: Angelina Petrova
Editor: Sergey Fomkin

Magazine: Swarm Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
02 Sept. 2021, Prague, Czechia
Interview by Markéta Kosinová

Podcast: SPREAKER Podcast
ROGER WEISS E L’ARTE DEL KINTSUGI
00:12:34, 02 July 2021, IT
by Alessio Bottiroli
On The Nature Of Light
Un podcast di e sulla fotografia

Magazine: I-D
I CORPI DISTORTI ED EMANCIPATI NEGLI SCATTI DI ROGER WEISS PER LA COLLEZI- ONE AMINA MUADDI X WOLFORD
29 July 2021, IT
TEXT by Carolina Davalli

Blog: The Dummy’s Tales
ROGER WEISS, IL CORPO ANARCHICO
08 Feb. 2021, IT
TEXT by Francesca Interlenghi

Magazine: Art Super Magazine
ROGER WEISS: EATING, THE ACT OF CONFIDENCE
Jan. 2018, IT
Interview by Annalisa Scandroglio

Magazine: D’Scene Magazine
THE PERSPECTIVE OF ROGER WEISS
4 pages, Dec, 2017, UK
Interview by Sav Liotta

Magazine: Digit! Magazine
AUSWEITUNG DER KOMFORTZONE
8 pages, Oct/Nov 2016, DE
Interview by Von Peter Schuffelen

Magazine: Hestetika Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
8 pages, Oct. 2016, IT
Interview by Valentina De’ Mathà

Magazine: Dazed
THESE PHOTOGRAPHS EXPLORE NEW PER- SPECTIVES OF FEMALE BEAUTY
26 June 2016, UK
Interview by Ione Gamble

Blog: FotoRoom
HUMAN DILATATIONS: Roger Weiss Creates Mind-Blowing Portraits of Dilated Female Bodies
02 May 2016, IT

Rubrique: Les Blogs DE l’ART HELVÈTIQUE CONTEMPORAIN
UN HOMME EN MOUVEMENT: PORTRAIT DE L’ARTISTE DE THURGOVIE ROGER WEISS
23 July 2015, CH
Interview byJ-Paul Gavard-Perret
Rubrique des arts plastiques et de la littérature en Suisse

Magazine: Vogue Italia
ROGER WEISS
05 April 15, IT
Interview by Alessia Glaviano

TV: RSI, Cult Tv
ROGER WEISS
03 March 2014, CH

Magazine: Ticino Welcome Magazine
VOGLIO SCOPRIRE NUOVI TERRITORI DA ESPLORARE E RACCONTARE
6 pages, Sept/Nov, 2013, CH

Magazine: Blink Magazine
ROGER WEISS
14 pages + Cover, 2012, Korea

Magazine: NY Arts magazine
I AM FLESH
1 page, Summer 2011, NY

Magazine: Twill magazine
35 AN ETHMOGRAPHIC PROJECT
10 pages, June 2010, FR
TEXT by Adriano Zamperini

Magazine: Fotocomputer Magazine
ROGER WEISS
Issue 67, 6 pages, April 2005, IT

Special Projects

Enterprise Japan
Carnale Magazine
Learnn
Apple
Collectible DRY
Cosha
Wolford｜Amina Muaddi
Camilla Sparksss
Schön! Magazine

Selected Publications

BOOK: Seltmann Publisher
FUMES AND PERFUMES
10 pages, 18 Jan. 2024, DE
Herausgeber / Editors: Frank Bayh & Steff Rosenberger-Ochs, Peter Franck, Bernd Kammerer, Monica Menez und Yves Noir

MAGAZINE: WeAr Magazine
We Are One
Issue 75, 1 page, March 2023. IT
Enterprise Japan FW23 Campaign

BOOK: Dumont Publisher
I SEE VULVAS EVERYWHERE
1 page, 18 July. 2023, DE
By Lisa Frischemeier

Book: Kerber Publisher
THE OPÉRA
10 pages, 14 Nov. 2022, DE
Edited by Matthias Straub Designed by Steffen Knöll Designed by Sven Tillack
Limited anniversary issue of The Opéra – Magazine for Contemporary Nude Photography – including its most famous positions of the past as well as new views on the human body

Magazine: Carnale Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Issue 3, 10 pages + a limited edition poster of 100,
size 203x140cm. Sept, 2022, IT

MAGAZINE: The Opéra Magazine
THE HUG
Volume X, 10 pages, 12 July 2021, DE

Magazine: D’Scene Magazine
THE PERSPECTIVE OF ROGER WEISS
4 pages, Dec, 2017, UK

MAGAZINE: The Opéra Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Volume VI, 8 pages, Oct. 2017, DE

MAGAZINE: Schön Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Issue 33, 10 pages, Oct. 2017, UK

BOOK: Josef Weiss Private Press
THE SONG OF SONGS, WHICH IS SOLOMON’S, 2016, CH

Magazine: Digit! Magazine
AUSWEITUNG DER KOMFORTZONE
8 pages, Oct/Nov 2016, DE

Magazine: Hestetika Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
8 pages, Oct. 2016, IT

Magazine: Ticino Welcome Magazine
VOGLIO SCOPRIRE NUOVI TERRITORI DA ESPLORARE E RACCONTARE
6 pages, Sept/Nov, 2013, CH

Magazine: Blink Magazine
ROGER WEISS
Cover + 14 pages, 2012, Korea

BOOK: Gestalten Publishers
DOPPELGÄNGER, IMAGE OF THE HUMAN BEING
2 pages, Jan. 31, 2011, DE

Magazine: NY Arts magazine
I AM FLESH
1 page, Summer 2011, NY

Magazine: Twill magazine
35 AN ETHMOGRAPHIC PROJECT
10 pages, June 2010, FR
TEXT by Adriano Zamperini

Magazine: Fotocomputer Magazine
ROGER WEISS
Issue 67, 6 pages, April 2005, IT

2012｜Blink Magazine

Roger Weiss

Blink Magazine
Cover + 14 pages, 2012, Korea

Hello Roger. Who are you and what do you do for a living?

I was born in Switzerland and in early age I began experimenting with photography.

I graduated with the highest grade from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, Italy. My curiosity for the human shape Ieads me to an artistic approach. As up to today, I carry on as an artistic as well as a fashion photographer. I always have thought that photography is a precise lifestyle. A commitment that bears the mark of abnegation, the first condition to approach the sublime. “Photography for a higher awareness of myself, of my human being”.

When and how did you decide to venture into photography?

ware that I could use it as a mask from which to gain strength and hide my idea of limits.

Can you talk a bit about some of your work over the years?

I explore our social fragmentation, where each one of us thinks to look out for himself, with no regard for our context. I look for shards of the drama of the human condition to document through photographic fragmentation, that they relate to setbacks and aspirations, weaknesses and strengths, pain and joy. Of rights archieved and rights trodden down.

Tell me about the ‘I am Flesh’ project. How did the idea for the series come about?

Seeing is a pure, primordial, non-Judgmental act; thinking, interpreting and evaluating are subsequent processes arising out of the habit and need of ordering all imagery in our own representation of the world. ‘I am Flesh’ is based precisely on this lack of immediate assessment: by expanding its scope. it creates an experience comparable to that of Iiterary haiku, where – in the absence of lexlcal virtuosity – one has the possibility of following a path through reality.

Who are those people in photographs?

In ‘I am Flesh’ it is bodies who make up reality: 35 naked female bodies metioulously filmed and photcgraphed in their primeval condition to lock as real as possible- and surprisingly so. No distraction is allowed on front of these bodies: in their presence, any feeling of attractionc repugnance, bewilderment, excitement or banal initial curiosity fades away as one gets physically closer to the work, to its outspoken essentiality. These naked bodies act as a stimulus to search new insights in Ioneliness and are like invitations to a confrontation with one’s own self. They reject all pretexts and lies: there is nothing to prove, the evidence is crystal-clear. They are timeless, yet create a space which wrong-foots us. They express the ultimate courage to lay bare and offer onesell without mediaticns – which we almost always lack. We are somehow forced to incarnate in their flesh. And without us being aware of the process, they become maps – and we do the same in a transitive spirit of daring. ‘I am Flesh’ is, above all, a project on identity.

Why did you name the project as ‘I am FIesh’?

‘I am Flesh’ the flesh that exposes itself. calls for others’ perception and the inner self, usually held back as opaque and inaccessible, and becomes open and displayed on the skin so revealing the inner self. These works, rub up against us, create the friction that is typical of the human encounter and call everybody to live a relationship in which reciprocal differences are a pre-condition for understanding.

How was the process of preparing and shoothg for the project?

Friends and models have joined the project as well as all those who simply adhered by seeing the project itself growing. I asked all of them to gift me a moment in which they would have totally released themselves from their life pattern. Only at that moment I would have pictured them in their female being. This extrsordinary resemblance to the truth is achieved by means of a special technique: each image is composed of 47.244 X 32.864 pixels per inch, equivalent to 400 X 278 cm printable area at 300 dpi, while – in order to obtain better perception – the works will be executed as 230 x 160 cm on Diasec and displayed all together.

Tel me how the idea tor ‘Be Two’ project came about

The ‘Be Two’ is a project on ID through couples Iacking will and pulsions proper of nature’s human soul. By eliminating drives and muscular contraotions, in that very photographic juncture instant I obtained a negative of the instinclual couple and of those reasons why a couple has a right to exist. This negative allowed me to trace a map, an ideal outline in which I can pick elements bonded to the unoonscious and not typical of every human being, elements that crop up afterwards in the images.

What types of people inspire you to take their photogaph?

The encounter with people of passim belongs to that moment in which our sensory receptors are amplified. Photographically speaking I act during this time, when you get closer to each other in dilated pupils. “The pleasure in seeing is spring which feeds summer of a deeper understanding: the possibility TO BE together with the others”.

What do you ask your subjects in front of your camera?

I disguise myselt completely in the pictures machine from where I take the strength from, and I hide my idea of limit in a realty pictured together, in a lonely instant and without mediation. My subject/Models know that Is the meeting in itself that Interests me, exactly when, in a few instants, you have to decide how and how much of yourself you will, and are able to give.

You’ve worked both photography and video, how do you adapt creatively between the two?

I use the video as if it was a camera, expanding in time steady images and I use photography going after a moment that nearly always escapes, like a hunter and his prey. Photography has got to do with hunting. You click, you shoot and you hope you’ve captured your prey. The predator-hunter sleeps to rest and dreams to recounter on his ability to hunt. Photographing is dreaming of hunting, shooting at preys in order to really seize them the day after. At the sunlight the photographer is like the hunter who used to paint in the caves (darkroom) the preys so that the cave could give birth to those preys in the open air where then he would have hunted for them in the daylight. Channel of birth, platonic cave, darkroom, rocky wall, film, digital support… I remain a hunter, photography a mean of hunt; ars goetia, a theurgy the photographing (Maurizio Medaglia).

What equipment do you use?

I use Nikon for photography. Canon for video and Hasselblad for the medium-format.

How do approach a new project when you get an idea?

What surrounds me becomes a field of experimentation which is fed by my desire to get personally involved. I am always questioning myself. Trying to ﬁnd the courage not to lock back and understand what is the way that allows me to grow.

What is your art theory?

Society creates and destroys models in the interest of a few. Its everyone’s responsibility to find or create alternatives.

What’s next lor you? Any future plans?

Find out new territories to explore and tell about.