Rob Hornstra’s portrait retrospective at Galerija Jakopič runs through 4 October 2026

Galerija Jakopič in Ljubljana is presenting ‘Običajni ljudje’ (‘Ordinary People’), a retrospective of Dutch photographer Rob Hornstra that brings together more than 70 portraits made over the past two decades. According to the museum material, the show focuses on everyday life in Russia and Europe and includes newer works from Hornstra’s ‘Evropejci’ (‘Europeans’) project, some of them photographed in Slovenia. The exhibition opened on 27 May 2026 and is on view until 4 October 2026.

The project is presented by Muzej in galerije mesta Ljubljane, the institution that runs Galerija Jakopič, in collaboration with Fotomuseum Den Haag. The gallery describes the exhibition as its first international presentation of Hornstra’s retrospective and places it within its broader programme of exhibitions that address memory, cultural heritage and photography as a socially legible visual medium. The newsletter announcing the show also notes that Galerija Jakopič offers public guided tours every Sunday at 4.30 pm, with no advance registration required.

Hornstra is identified in the exhibition text as a Dutch photographer born in Borne in 1975. The gallery says he has devoted himself to long-term documentary and socially engaged projects, working primarily as a portrait photographer and seeking images that can serve as symbols of a particular moment or place. The retrospective draws on his sustained attention to ordinary situations and everyday roles, with examples in the press text including a butcher behind the counter, an office worker at a desk and children at play.

The exhibition’s structure is shaped by categories Hornstra uses for his photographs, inspired by August Sander. These categories, the gallery says, form the basis of his series and include themes such as work, youth and folk customs. At the same time, the system is not rigid: the portraits can belong to more than one category, creating what the gallery describes as a picture of the layered nature of human experience rather than fixed typologies.

Alongside the main retrospective, the exhibition includes selected works from ‘Evropejci’ (‘Europeans’), a decade-long project Hornstra is developing with writer Arnold van Bruggen. The Slovene-language material says the pair began a ten-year search for the contemporary European at a time when Europe is facing crisis. The works shown in Ljubljana were photographed in Carinthia and Styria in the period before recent parliamentary elections, and the gallery says they address not only the stories of the people depicted but also their social roles.

The retrospective is accompanied by two publications: a bilingual photo monograph, ‘Ordinary People’, issued in English and Dutch by Lannoo, and a Slovenian-English MGML publication, ‘Kjer ogenj tli / Where the Fire Slumbers’, devoted to the Slovenia-based portraits from ‘Evropejci’. The gallery’s exhibition page lists the opening hours as Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00–18.00, at Galerija Jakopič on Slovenska cesta 9 in Ljubljana.