Lukas van Bentum (b. 1995, DE) is a visual artist and photographer based between Düsseldorf and Brussels. His practice revolves around long-term, research-driven projects in which he examines how identity, belonging and collective narratives are shaped by history, imagery and power.
Through his practice, he seeks out tensions between personal stories and broader historical currents. He works in places where identities are constructed, negotiated and contested, often looking at how political histories and systems of power continue to shape everyday life and individual experience. Rather than approaching photography as a transparent window onto these contexts, he treats the image as both document and proposition: a site where reality can be recorded, questioned and reconfigured.
His practice takes an expanded approach to documentary photography, combining his own photographs with archival material, found images, video, text and other forms of visual research. Working across these different forms, he constructs layered narratives that move between observation, memory and historical record. His projects explore how images shape our understanding of places and identities, while also drawing attention to what remains absent or unresolved within them.
His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Deichtorhallen Hamburg, MARTa Herford, Landesmuseum Koblenz, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, and FotoForum Brasschaat.
In 2019, his series Identity Negotiation was awarded the gute aussichten – new german photography Prize. He later received the Roger de Conynck Prize from the King Baudouin Foundation for his project Spectacle. In 2025, he was awarded the Sébastien van der Straten Grant. That same year, he published his first photobook, Erosion, developed with the support of the Roger de Conynck Fund.
Through his practice, he seeks out tensions between personal stories and broader historical currents. He works in places where identities are constructed, negotiated and contested, often looking at how political histories and systems of power continue to shape everyday life and individual experience. Rather than approaching photography as a transparent window onto these contexts, he treats the image as both document and proposition: a site where reality can be recorded, questioned and reconfigured.
His practice takes an expanded approach to documentary photography, combining his own photographs with archival material, found images, video, text and other forms of visual research. Working across these different forms, he constructs layered narratives that move between observation, memory and historical record. His projects explore how images shape our understanding of places and identities, while also drawing attention to what remains absent or unresolved within them.
His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Deichtorhallen Hamburg, MARTa Herford, Landesmuseum Koblenz, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, and FotoForum Brasschaat.
In 2019, his series Identity Negotiation was awarded the gute aussichten – new german photography Prize. He later received the Roger de Conynck Prize from the King Baudouin Foundation for his project Spectacle. In 2025, he was awarded the Sébastien van der Straten Grant. That same year, he published his first photobook, Erosion, developed with the support of the Roger de Conynck Fund.
2017-2018 ERASMUS, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent
2015-2019 BA Visual Arts, Fachhochschule Bielefeld
2025 Pour Gaza, Centre Culturel de Liège, Les Chiroux, Liège
2023 UNEXPOSED, PhotoTWENS 2023, Romaanse Port, Leuven
2022 (Un)broken, KASK, Gent
2021 UNEXPOSED, PhotoTWENS 2021, Romaanse Port, Leuven
2021 FotoForum Talent, FotoForum Brasschaat
2020 guteaussichten 2019/2020, Landesmuseum Koblenz
2020 guteaussichten 2019/2020, Deichtorhallen Hamburg
2020 7th LUMIX Festival for Young Visual Journalism, Hanover
2019 guteaussichten 2019/2020, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf
2019 Werkschau, Department of Art and Design, Bielefeld
2018 File not found, YUGEN, Ghent
2017 Kosmos, MARTa, Herford
2016 Tales and Tiles, Department of Art and Design, Bielefeld
2023 UNEXPOSED, PhotoTWENS 2021, laureate
2022 Roger de Conynck Prize, King Baudouin Foundation
2021 UNEXPOSED, PhotoTWENS 2021, laureate
2020 FotoForum Talent, FotoForum Brasschaat, laureate
2019 guteaussichten – new german photography 19/20, laureate
2023 Roger de Conynck Grant, King Baudouin Foundation
2017-2022 Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes e.V. Grant
2022 “Hallo, ich komme aus der siebten Liga”, 11FREUNDE, #245
2022 “Der implantierte Mikrochip”, taz FUTURZWEI, #19
2021 “Im Land der grünen Bananen”, 11FREUNDE, #235
2021 Identity Negotiation, Die Politische Meinung, #566
2017 Utopia, HANT Magazin, #09