Hagen Bogdanski was born in Berlin on April 24 1965. As a teenager, he tried himself as an actor, for instance in the childrens' programme "Die Sendung mit der Maus". After studying at the Berlin School of Photography, he was an Assistant DoP for several years, and worked with renowned cinematographers like Xaver Schwarzenberger, Jürgen Jürges and Gernot Roll. Beginning with "Die Spur der roten Fässer" (1996), he was Director of Photography on many film and TV productions, including three films by Oskar Roehler: "Gierig" (1999), "Die Unberührbare" (2000) and "Der alte Affe Angst" (2003).

In 2005 he was nominated for the German Camera Prize for his work on the TV thriller "Minenspiel". The following year, he won the German Film Prize for his photography in Florian Henckel-Donnersmarck's debut "Das Leben der Anderen". After shooting numerous TV productions, Bogdanski was DoP on the multi-award winning period piece "The Young Victoria" in 2009, a British-American co-production starring Emily Blunt. The same year, he helmed the camera in Leander Haußmann's comedy "Dinosaurier – Gegen uns seht ihr alt aus!" and in the Hildegard Knef biopic "Hilde" – for which he was again nominated for a German Film Prize. Also in 2009, director Christian Alvart's Hollywood debut, the thriller "Fall 39" premiered. Bogdanski had worked with him before on "Antikörper". The film's atmospheric visual style apparently caught the attention of other Hollywood filmmakers: In 2010/2011, Bogdanksi was credited as director of photography for Jodie Foster's "The Beaver" and Madonna's "W.E."

His next film was Leander Haußmann's comedy "Hotel Lux" in 2011, set in Moscow right before the outbreak of WWII, for which he was awarded the Austrian Film Prize "Romy". A year later, he operated the camera for Franziska Buch's drama "Upgrade", set at Berlin Tegel Airport. Still in 2012, producer Nico Hofmann and director Philipp Stölzl hired him as DoP for the elaborate film adaptation of the best selling historical novel "The Physician". "Der Medicus" opened in cinemas December 2013.