Baro frajeris sounds like a friendly wink—in the Roma context, it’s a way of showing respect to someone who has style, confidence, and standing. And that’s exactly who Andrej Pešta (1921–2009) was: an amateur photographer, writer, activist, and artist. At the exhibition, you’ll see him in a range of everyday situations—working in the garden, by the pool, surrounded by family, in intimate and ordinary moments. In short, as someone in control of his own life, with a personal vision and the ability to create. He lived a life that, for many Roma during socialism, felt like an unattainable dream—and for the majority society, an unimaginable anomaly. At a time when Roma were usually portrayed either in a romanticized or a stigmatized way, Pešta’s images were something close to revolutionary. To portray a Roma person as a subject with hobbies, with pride, with an everyday life—that was (and perhaps still is) a radical act. Pešta captured the ordinary: family gatherings, moments of rest, quiet celebrations, and everyday scenes that would otherwise have gone undocumented. In the 1960s, he became actively involved in the Roma ethno-emancipation movement connected with the Union of Gypsies-Roma, becoming one of the few to visually document the movement’s inner workings. His photographs were not taken from an external, anthropological perspective—they were the gaze of someone within the community: deeply personal, authentic, and often gently ironic. Pešta’s body of work forms a unique visual archive of Roma life during socialism—a period often represented exclusively from the perspective of the majority. The exhibition at Fotograf Zone doesn’t focus solely on the documentary nature of Pešta’s photographs; it also emphasizes the body—specifically the Roma body (Pešta’s body), appearing both in front of and behind the lens. This curatorial concept was developed by visual artist Emília Rigová, bringing a fresh, layered perspective to the exhibition. date and time Opening hours Mon—Thur 13:00—19:00