The work of Argentine fashion photographer Antonella Arismendi is an esoteric fusion, overlaying cyber-age aesthetics (something akin to “glitch art”) with the ancient symbolism of kabbalism, occultism, and astrology. As an impassioned astrologist herself, Arismendi trusts in a cosmic universality, believing that “the spiritual movements that have occurred in different times arise from the same […]
Category: Photo Retouching
Dark Fantasy and Industrialism in Stefan Gesell’s Otherworldly Portraiture
Stefan Gesell is a Munich-based photographer who composes breathtaking images that shock and seduce the imagination. Mixing dark fantasy imagery with industrialism and science fiction, Gesell uses his experience as a former graphic designer to tell elaborate stories using the lens. Dark, confident, and even tortured figures confront the viewer with tremendous strength, each seemingly […]
Photographer Nicolas Bruno’s Haunting Visions of Sleep Paralysis
Nicolas Bruno is a photographer who composes surreal scenes based on his experiences with sleep paralysis, a rare phenomenon that renders an individual immobilized in a hallucinatory state between dreams and awakening. In an interview with VICE, Bruno describes sleep paralysis as an experience of “purgatory,” a floating, liminal state that, for him, is inhabited […]
Temptation of Void: Photography by Alexei Sovertkov
Voids, vacuums, and other zones of uncertainty inspire the works of Alexei Sovertkov, a Moscow-based photographer and visual artist. Featured here is his newest series, “Temptation of Void,” which consists of a series of bizarre family portraits. Each person (and animal) poses with fishbowls over their heads, and their bright faces and bemused expressions invoke […]
Dance and Surrealism in Josephine Cardin’s Self-Portraits
Josephine Cardin is a photographer based in Rochester, New York, whose dreamy portraiture exposes “human themes of loneliness, isolation, melancholy, love, and loss.” Featured here are images from her recent work, all of which are self-portraits. Having trained as a ballet dancer, Cardin incorporates movement, using her body to pose in ways that are indicative […]
Modern Addictions: Surreal Photography by TOMAAS
In “Modern Addictions,” fine-art fashion photographer TOMAAS explores the over-consumption and dependency on prescription drugs. “Over the course of our lifetime, we are likely to be prescribed over 14,000 pills . . . [We] are on the verge of becoming a medicated society,” he explains, describing his inspiration for the series. In these photos, TOMAAS […]
Soulful Stargazing: Photography by Nadia Maria
Nadia Maria is a photographer based in Bauru, Sao Paulo, who creates dark, figurative images that capture stories of emotional pain, awakening, and transformation. Featured here is a series of her images depicting nude men and women enmeshed in constellation-like patterns, looking skyward, or curled up and charted out like geometric equations. Contrasting light with […]
Portraits of Fear by Magdalena Pacewicz
“I still feel fear, but I like to smile,” writes Magdalena Pacewicz, describing the ambivalent subjects of her ghostly overlay photography. Based in Wroclaw, Poland, Pacewicz mixes digital technology with traditional media to create black-and-white portraits, melting together facial features with ghoulish eyes and lipless mouths. Seeking to dive deep into the human psyche, Pacewicz […]
Priestess of the Dystopia: The Artwork of Ashley Joncas
Ashley Joncas is a Seattle-based artist and the founder of the multidisciplinary studio énigme. Combining minimalist aesthetics with “deep atmospheric qualities of an ominous color spectrum,” Joncas’ portfolio is a window into a bleak yet beautiful world. Rain-swept horizons and wandering cloaked figures ignite the imagination, producing a somber yet wistful mood. Joncas is an […]
Bigger Than Us: The Lone Cosmonaut by David Schermann
David Schermann is a conceptual photographer based in Vienna. In a recent project titled “Bigger Than Us,” Schermann brought a Russian spacesuit deep into the mountains of Vorarlberg, Austria. Digitally painted red, the sweeping mountains and valleys take on an otherworldly quality, like a deserted mirror of Earth. Both familiar and alien, the setting provides […]