Series - FotoSlovo 2026 - Category « Fine Art »

This project explores psychological suffering that often originates in childhood trauma such as neglect, abandonment, and abuse.

The images symbolically represent what may remain after early trauma: a condition suspended between borderline fragmentation and, in extreme cases, the threshold of psychosis. Identity instability, dissociation, intrusive inner voices, shame, guilt, mistrust, and a conflicted relationship with one's own body emerge as enduring consequences.

A conceptual visual language was chosen instead of documentary photography in order to protect the identity and vulnerability of those whose experiences inspired the project. The photographs are not portraits of specific individuals, but symbolic representations of a shared psychological condition.

Mirrors and reflections in the early images evoke unstable self-perception and inner fragmentation. Black and white spheres suggest opposing forces that remain unresolved within the individual. As the sequence progresses, tension intensifies: shadows close in, contrasts sharpen, and the psychological landscape becomes more fragile.

The figure of the “Inner Mother” introduces a psychoanalytic theme of symbolic repair. Cradling a doll becomes a compensatory gesture—an attempt to offer oneself the care and tenderness once denied.

The series concludes with Hamlet’s Doubt, where the ultimate existential question emerges: to endure the weight of suffering, or to surrender to it.