Kuba Freter (b. 1995) is a visual artist who lives and works in Cologne, Germany.
Freter is a self-taught analog photographer inspired by the emotional weight of fleeting moments, the tension between solitude and belonging, and the subtle choreography of everyday life. His work reveals a quiet sensitivity to light, texture, and form - grounded in observation, yet deeply attuned to atmosphere and memory. Contemporary in his poetic restraint, his practice is rooted in walking, waiting, and witnessing - allowing the world to unfold without force. Through his use of analog processes, he constructs images that invite ambiguity and reflection, rendering the transient with clarity and care.
His work is shaped by personal experience and a closeness to his subjects, often emerging from within the communities he documents. From the layered silences of urban streets to the visceral charge of youth culture, Freter’s photographs carry a sense of interiority - capturing what is emotionally present in what might otherwise go unnoticed. In his early years, he spent time moving through cities with a camera in hand, developing a visual language grounded in patience, intuition, and proximity.
Freter has exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in Cologne, including Paroli (2023), And Miles To Go Before I Sleep (2024), and Nostalgia - Mosaic 2 (2024) at the Michael Horbach Stiftung. His second solo presentation, Dreamers(2025), traces the rise and dissolution of a skateboarding youth community in Wrocław - a subculture he was part of, captured from the inside. Blending documentary instinct with staged elements developed during a film production, the series holds together performance and real emotion, radiating longing, intimacy, and the search for freedom.
Freter continues to explore themes of memory, transience, and collective becoming. His photographs move gently between stillness and energy, presence and disappearance - always returning to the question of how we hold onto moments that are already fading.
