Poetic Darkness in Corpus Vertebrae’s Photography

Corpus Vertebrae - skull and hand

Based in eastern Poland, Corpus Vertebrae (Michalina Wozniak) is a self-professed “photographer and dead soul.” Like dark haikus, her minimalist images plunge straight to the soul. Women wear skulls, beetles, and masks—images of death and transformation—signalling their submergence into a symbolic state of fathomless emotion. Using her work as a means of expressing her experience of mental illness, Corpus Vertebrae’s portraits show us a world that hangs between the cruel phases of mania and depression. Telling their secrets to our hearts, they bravely speak of the kind of pain that is too-often endured in obscurity and solitude.

Corpus Vertebrae - woman with crown

Corpus Vertebrae - hands and wrists

Corpus Vertebrae - snake on back

Corpus Vertebrae - skull over face

Corpus Vertebrae - paper

Corpus Vertebrae - masks

Corpus Vertebrae - face

Corpus Vertebrae - beetle on chest

Corpus Vertebrae - twins

Images © Corpus Vertebrae

Via Dark Beauty