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 […]
Category: Portraits
Bodies of Emotion: An Update from Alex Stoddard
We’ve featured the work of LA-based photographer Alex Stoddard before, but over the last year, he has continued to create a stream of mind-blowing imagery. Featured here are 10 self-portraits, all containing his characteristic symbolism and emotional potency. Whereas his previous work explored scenes of the human experience in grand environments, Stoddard tells us that […]
10 Beautiful and Playful Erotic Photographs
As defined by Judith Roof in the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, erotic photography “consists of images produced with a photographic camera that inspire sexual feelings.” However, definitions aside, it’s not that simple; erotic photography is a style that has been historically marked with contentious and ever-shifting boundaries. Artists have long debated “art” vs. “porn,” […]
Nightmares and Deep Emotions in Stunning Images by Diana Dihaze
Diana Dihaze is a Ukraine-based photographer and digital artist who manipulates her photos to reveal disturbing yet beautiful inner truths. Her images derive from the corners of her subconscious, arriving to her through dreams and nightmares. There is a surreal element of horror as nature and grotesque wounds cover the bodies of her subjects, all […]
The Essence of Skin: An Interview with Evelyn Bencicova
If you enjoy dark art, chances are that you’ve encountered the incredible work of Slovakian photographer Evelyn Bencicova. I’ve written about her work twice before, describing each photo as an “otherworldly vision” of beauty that “extends into the alien and absurd.” Born in 1992, Bencicova bought her first camera after she had eye surgery at […]
Dynamic Character Sketches in Ink: Interview with Cutty Bage
Portraits come to life in the tattoos of Cutty Bage, an artist working from Speakeasy Tattoo Co. in Boone, North Carolina. Inspired by horror and mystery, she uses her skill to add new dimensions to peculiar characters from comics, film, and literature, such as Wednesday Addams, Agent Cooper, and Edgar Allen Poe. Cutty Bage began […]
Exploring the Unconscious: Dark Photos by Peter Zelei
For Hungarian photographer Peter Zelei, there is no “black and white” when it comes to humanity; “I believe . . . we are a very complicated mix of good, bad, darkness and light,” he explained in an interview with Citizen Brooklyn. His photographs are filled with beauty and cruelty, with scenes and scenarios that simultaneously […]
Dreamlike Moments in Denise Kwong’s Creative Portraiture
Magic and human vulnerability find a peaceful crossroads in the photography of Sydney-based Denise Kwong. “I first used people in my photos to give scale to a landscape shot. Then, progressively, they became more a subject in the shot,” she told the Phoblographer. Each subject is expressed in symbolic, conceptual ways, often using the immediate […]
All We Cannot See: An Interview with Marco Mazzoni
Italian artist Marco Mazzoni has used colored pencils in his work since he was very young. Although some abandon the medium as they get older, Mazzoni continued to hone his pencil technique into something truly spectacular. He fuses colors into smooth, silky blends that resemble oil paintings. Although Mazzoni depicts elements of beauty, his work takes […]
Eerie Tattoos of Women With Soulless Eyes by Slumdog
It’s said that the windows are the eyes to the soul. If that’s the case, then the women in these tattoos have no soul. An artist who goes by the name Slumdog creates these eerie portraits where vintage-inspired style and porcelain skin is offset by blank or black eyes. This is a welcome twist to […]