Florian Hetz began taking photographs in 2007, after encephalitis left him with a memory he could no longer trust. At first, the camera was simply a tool for marking time—a way to hold onto days as they slipped away during his recovery. By 2016, however, photography had become something more: a deliberate artistic approach to confronting the fragmented nature of memory. What had been a way to hold on to life became, instead, a way to construct it.

Hetz’s photographs are unsettling, often dreamlike, and always shifting. They reflect the efforts of a mind making sense of absence—of what it can no longer fully recall. These fragments are pieced together into something resembling truth. His perspective is precise, with each frame carefully composed to highlight the tension between what is remembered and what is lost. There is a quiet intimacy to these images, but it is not comforting. It is the kind of honesty that asks you to look closer, even when you’d rather look away.

Hetz’s work has been featured in three books, exhibited in galleries worldwide, and celebrated for its emotional depth. Unusual Experiences, his solo exhibition at Everyday Gallery in Antwerp, was longlisted for the 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.

Living in Berlin, Hetz continues to explore how the past lingers, how we carry it with us, and how it shapes who we are.

Solo exhibitions:

2024

Laokoon, Kunstverein Goldberg, Goldberg

2023

unusual experiences, Everyday Gallery, Antwerp

2022

Species, Die Diele, Zurich

Haut, Parliament Gardens, Photo 2022, Melbourne

2020

Zwei, Bananaz Gallery, Oslo

2018

Echo Park, Frappant Galerie, Triennale der Photographie Hamburg

2016

The Matter of Absence, Berghain, Berlin

Selected group exhibitions:

2024

Strategien der Resistenz, Schwules Museum, Berlin, Sex Sells, Semjon Contemporary, Berlin, GORGEOUSNESS, Bernrubi Gallery, New York, HAUTNAH, RFD Insel, Innsbruck, LOVE, LUST & FREEDOM, Kunst Museum Brandts, Odense

2023

Queer Pandemia, Parentesi Roma Smistamento, Rome, Désir, Instinct Berlin, Ultra Queer, Base Milano, Milan, Tom of Finland Frieze, Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles

2022

All Together, The Community, Paris, All Together, Studio Cannaregio, Venice, Urban Clash, P6 Gallery, Berlin, Beautiful Indiscretions, Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, L’œil du Collectionneur, Polka Galerie, Paris

2021

The Gaze, TJ Boulting, London, Get over it, P6 Gallery, Berlin, Artillery, #2_EVOLUTION, Collective Oslo, Oslo, Visible Love, Container Love, Berlin, Boys! Boys! Boys!, Fahey Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, Send me an Image, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Artillery #1 REALIA_, Collective Oslo, Oslo

2020

Intimacy: New Queer Art from Berlin and Beyond, Schwules Museum, Berlin, Body Fluids, Saarländische Galerie, Berlin, Back to Life, Tape Modern, Berlin

2019

From the Margins, Gallery 102, Washington DC, Under the Anti Lies the Body, Slowroom Contemporary/Stefanskirken, Copenhagen, Boys Boys Boys Amsterdam, The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam, My Queer Eye - Berlin, The Ballery, Berlin, Ultra/ Where Love is Illegal, Sedici, Prato, Queer Identities in Europe, Queer Festival Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Boys Boys Boys Köln, Galerie Biesenbach, Köln, The Body is the Instrument, Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, Month of Photography LA Group Show, Arena 1 Gallery, Los Angeles

2018

A Strong Desire, PS120, Berlin, My Queer Eye, The Ballery, Berlin, #berlinuncensored, Blogfabrik, Berlin, More Boys Boys Boys, Hospital Club, London, Queer Biennial, Naval, Los Angeles

2017

Rotation: Queer, Slowroom Contemporary, Copenhagen, He - Queering and Questioning Masculinity, Last Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, Berlin Savage, Circle 1 Gallery, Berlin

2016 

Nerven Behalten, Werkstatt Galerie, Berlin, Instinct 1+2, The Village, Berlin, Last Days of Summer, The Impossible Project, Berlin, Stamp the Future, Werkstatt Galerie, Berlin

Collaborations:

Staatsballett Berlin, Image campaign Season 2023/24

Diesel, Tom of Finland Capsule Collection 2022

Marni, SS2019 Menswear Collection

Books:

“AIKO” Florian Hetz, Paper Affairs, 2021

“ZWEI” Florian Hetz, Paper Affairs, 2020

“The Matter of Absence” Florian Hetz, Bruno Gmünder Verlag, 2016

Publications:

“Boys! Boys! Boys!” Ghislain Pascal, Kehrer Verlag, 2023, “All Together”, Tom of Finland Foundation, 2022, “Mein schwules Auge 18 - Outdoors”, Rinaldo Hopf, Konkursbuchverlag, 2021, “New Queer Photography”, Benjamin Wollbergs, Kettler Verlag, 2020, “Boys, Boys, Boys”, Ghislain Pascal, teNeues/MENDO, 2020, “From the Margins”, Andy Johnson, Cocran School of the Arts & Design, 2019, “Der Greif - 12”, Broomberg & Chanarin, 2019, “Mein schwules Auge 16- Berlin” Rinaldo Hopf, Konkursbuchverlag, 2019, “Boys! Boys! Boys!” Ghislain Pascal, The Little Black Gallery, 2018, “Mein schwules Auge 14 - Tom of Finland Foundation Special” Rinaldo Hopf, Konkursbuchverlag, 2018, “Photodarium Private” Prof. Lars Harmsen, seltman+söhne Verlag, 2017, “Pics or it didn’t happen” Arvida Byström, Molly Soda, Prestel Verlag, 2017

Zines:

“I’m Sorry I Hurt You”, Los Angeles, 2023,

“LA Diary”, Los Angeles, 2019,

“Echo Park” Los Angeles, 2018

Selected Press:

Interview Magazine: “Florian Hetz wants to abolish artist statements”, Vogue Italia: “AIKO • A photobook about loss, acceptance and hope by Florian Hetz”, AnOther Magazine: “Intimacy, Loss and Hope: Inside Florian Hetz´s beautiful 2020 photo diary”, Metal Magazine: “Florian Hetz, male beauty at its best", Dazed and Confused: “Photos that explore the male body as a sex object”, Into More: “Florian Hetz: A Berlin photographer finds home in LA”, Hunger TV: “Berlin photographer Florian Hetz is challenging out phobia of the phallus”, Indie Mag: “The Matter of Absence: a portfolio exploring the gruesome beauty of the human body”, Les Inrockuptibles: “Au plus près des corps et de ses fluides”