Daydreams: Surreal worlds of photographer Helen Sobralski

The works of the German photographer Helen Sobiralski are well known all over the world. Each of her photographs is a whole story, in which a variety of messages addressed to the audience are presented in the form of symbols and hints. It is quite possible that without the author's explanations, which Helena does not like to give too much, her signals will remain unsolved, but this does not make the work worse — you want to see them again and again.

Helena's worlds are strange, often gloomy locations filled with unusual, but always interesting characters. Some of them are funny, others are beautiful, and others cause fear. The master tends to the Baroque era, with its abundance, monumentality and somewhat uncertain lighting.

Many of Helen's photographic works are similar to the canvases of Dutch masters. Beautiful, self-confident women, an abundance of fruits and meat, bones and skulls, massive furniture, furs and feathers bring the pictures closer to the unfading classics. At the same time, it is quite obvious that the characters in the frame are quite modern — they are given out by poses, clothing details and makeup.

Helen Sobralski's most famous project is the Cockaignesque series of works. It is to these pictures that the master owes worldwide recognition — in 2012, at the international exhibition in Berlin, the series made an indelible impression on the jury and the audience and received several major awards.

The title of the series is taken from medieval European legends. The Cockaigne country is a mythical place where abundance, peace and idleness always reign and there is no place for the rude prose of life and its bearers. Dynamic images, intense play of light and shadow, accents on details — the works from the Cockaignesque series are filled with mysticism that excites the imagination.