German photographer Joscha Bruckert created ROMKA in December 2008 while at the University of Applied Sciences an Arts in Dortmund. The idea was initialised by his tiredness of the huge amount of online magazines which all had the same purpose: to present the recent work of hip, emerging artists. ROMKA was meant to be a completely different and much more personal approach to photography as a medium. The first issue quickly fanned out to readers from over 60 countries and the resonance is rising ever since. To date, the website has recorded close to 70,000 downloads of it’s .pdf magazine.
Snap happy
The magazine features photographers who are international professionals, amateurs and students. The idea behind the work is to create a showcase for pictures that are not necessarily representative of the artists’ work, but their most favourite pictures – private pictures of friends and family, snapshots, the images that make them laugh or cry and the ones they can’t even remember taking. It’s not about self-portrayal, not about technical perfection or fancy topics. It’s not about style.
Beach life
ROMKA is currently celebrating it’s first anniversary. The fourth issue features the personal favourite photographs of 28 artists from 16 countries. The .pdf consists of 95 pages and is completely free. We’ve put together a .zip file with all four of their first issues which you can download here. Dutch exhibitionism, Canadian siblings, Serbian horseriding and everything else that matters on ROMKA.
Bath time
