Conceptual - NOMINEE: Elena Helfrecht
Elena Helfrecht
Beneath the Skin
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"Beneath the Skin" encompasses portraits as chapters of stories noone usually tells, viewing human bodies as books to be read in. The series is structured in dualities, working as complementary counterparts.
In the project the human form is portraied without the face, just as single and exeptional parts of the shell we live in - an individual and yet anonymous approach to invite the observer to emphasize with the shown subjects. The series explores how body and soul are connected and investigates how we are formed by our experiences.
About author:
Statement
My photographs come unfiltered and straight out of my core. They are personal and subjective, yet they show deep human concerns many of us are familiar with, but only few speak of. Nothing fascinates me more than our consciousness, which is the center of my visual research.
In a never ending attempt to understand I want to make people’s stories tangible and preserve their raw essence. My photographs aim to raise questions and give mental impulses.
The essence of all being is scattered in multiple dimensions of dualities, which we take for one-sided evaluatory concepts. However, one cannot love and apprehend humankind without looking at both aspects unbiased.
About
Elena Helfrecht, born 1992 in the bleak realms of rural Bavaria, discovers her passion for photography as preferred visual medium at early age and is influenced by the dark forests and folklore of her homeland.
Working self-taught she lays her focus on the pure essence of human and entity closely linked to the peculiar beauty behind every pretence. Observing the world through the facades' flaws she uncovers the disconcerting aesthetics of suppressed fears, emotions and dreams.
Only by looking at her subjects in their absolute entirety she evokes an intimate intensity and creates enchanting abysses. Thereby she is also governed by her studies of Art History and Book Sciences, which she finished with a bachelor's degree in early 2015 in Erlangen.