meet me
For more than fifteen years, I believed photography was about creating beautiful images.
I don't anymore.
Somewhere along the way, through divorce, motherhood, anxiety, years of searching, meditation, dance, forests, writing, and countless conversations with people brave enough to let themselves be seen, I realised that the photograph was never the destination.
Presence was.
Today my work lives somewhere between photography, embodiment, movement and nature. I create experiences where people can stop performing, reconnect with themselves, and leave with photographs that remind them not of how they looked...
...but of how they felt.
THE WORK BEHIND THE WORK
I've been working professionally as a photographer for more than fifteen years. My work has been shown in over 50 exhibitions and has received several awards, including at Slovenia Press Photo.
But the approach I bring to my work today wasn't shaped by photography alone. It has grown through years of exploring the body, movement and awareness—through meditation, my practice of Movement Medicine, and a devoted study of Kashmir Shaivism.
And no, I don't have a Certified Sacred Quantum Somatic Womb Activation Practitioner™ certificate from a €199 weekend intensive. Lunch not included.
What I do have is a deep respect for this work and a commitment to keep learning, questioning and practising. Most importantly, I try to take what I learn out of books, workshops and practice spaces and into my own life—to actually live it, test it against reality, and notice what remains true when things get messy.
I don't come from one method or school. My work has grown at the intersection of all of it: fifteen years behind the camera, years of study and exploration, working with people, and the wonderfully messy laboratory of my own life.
That's the ground I work from.
What You Should Probably Know
If you've made it this far, there's something I should probably tell you.
Despite the forests, the dark dresses and the occasional witchy aesthetic, I'm actually powered by humour. I swear more than is probably necessary and I occasionally use my ADHD as a perfectly reasonable excuse for my beautifully organised chaos. And despite the rumours... I've never owned a broom.
If we ever work together, there's a good chance we'll speak about fear, shame, tenderness, grief or joy. There's an equally good chance one of us will burst out laughing thirty seconds later. I don't believe depth and lightness are opposites. I think they belong together. In my experience, a nervous system that feels safe enough to laugh is already beginning to soften.
People often ask me what actually happens during a session, and the honest answer is: I never fully know. Sometimes we walk through a forest. Sometimes we dance. Sometimes we sit beneath a tree and barely speak. Sometimes we end up having conversations neither of us expected. There might be tears. There might be long silences. There might also be screaming and mascara running because we laughed so hard. I love all of it, because none of it is a performance. It's simply life being allowed to happen.
I don't believe my job is to fix you, heal you or transform you into a shinier version of yourself. I won't ask you to smile on command, and I definitely won't promise you'll love yourself by the end of our session.I'm much more interested in meeting the person who's been there all along. The one beneath the expectations, beneath the armour, beneath all the ideas of who they should be.
Over the years I've realised that photography is simply the language I speak. Movement became the doorway, nature became the studio, and presence quietly became the destination.
I don't know if everyone needs photographs.
But I do know that everyone deserves moments in which nothing needs to be earned, proven or fixed.
Maybe we've already met.
We just haven't done it in person yet.
I'd love to meet you.
Just bring yourself.
We'll let the rest unfold.
Kaja
LET'S MEET
Perhaps this is where we begin.
You don't need to have it all figured out.
Tell me what brought you here, what you're curious about, or simply say hello.
I'll take it from there.
OFIŠL CV
Kaja Zmajevska je umetniško ime Kaje Brezočnik. Študirala je na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje, smer vizualne komunikacije.
S fotografijo se intenzivno ukvarja od leta 2010. Od leta 2017 deluje kot profesionalna fotografinja na področju portretne, avtorske, dokumentarne in komercialne fotografije.
Razstavljala je na samostojnih in skupinskih fotografskih razstavah, med njimi v Jakopičevi galeriji, v Koroški galeriji likovnih umetnosti, v Obalnih galerijah Piran, Fluss Gallery in Photon Gallery na Dunaju in v Schiffahrtmuseum, Flensburg, Nemčija.
Za dela je bila večkrat nagrajena.
Izbrane samostojne in skupinske razstave:
2009, “Oko za oko”, Ljubljana, Jakopičeva galerija, skupinska razstava
2010, “Življenje”, Slovenj Gradec, Dom starostnikov, samostojna razstava
2011, “Molimo vas za malo pažnje”, Beograd, Srbija, skupinska razstava
2011, “Zmagovalna dela natečaja Slovenske fotografinje se predstavijo”, Jesenice, skupinska razstava
2012, “Zmagovalna dela natečaja Slovenia Press Photo 2012”, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, skupinska razstava
2012, “Trenutek”, Koroška Galerija Likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia, skupinska razstava
2013, “The amber road”, Fluss Gallery, Dunaj, Avstrija, skupinska razstava
2013, “Avtoportretni akt”, Maistrova, Maribor, Slovenija, skupinska razstava
2013, “Intereference Metafor”, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia, stalna razstava
2013, “THE AMBER RAOD SHOW”, FOTOFORUM WEST, Innsbruck, skupinska razstava
2014, “The Amber Road Show”, Schifffahrtsmuseum, Flensburg, Germany, skupinska razstava
2014, “Nasvidenje, Piran!”, Avditorij Portorož, skupinska razstava
2014, “Nasvidenje Piran”, Obalne galerije Piran, skupinska razstava štirih avtorjev
2015, “The Amber Road Show”, Photon Gallery, Dunaj, Avstrija, skupinska razstava
2015, “Ure/Hours”, Galerija Ravne na Koroškem, samostojna razstava skupnega projekta
2015, “Sodobna umetnost na Koroškem”, Galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec, izbrana dela razpisa, skupinska razstava
2015, “The Amber Road Show”, Kaunas Photo 2015, Vilnus, Litva, skupinska razstava
2016, “Sodobna umetnost na Koroškem”, Celovec, Avstrija
2017, “Me”, samostojna/skupinska razstava treh fotografinj, Galerija Bala, Kranj, Slovenia
2017, “Tu in tam”, skupinska razstava, KUD France Prešeren, Ljubljana, Slovenija
2019, KŠ X - Galerija na prostem, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, Slovenija, skupinska razstava
2020, “Fotografije”, Galerija Lek, Slovenija, samostojna razstava
