Single - FotoSlovo 2026 - Category « Conceptual photography »

This portrait was created following my final course of chemotherapy. It is a visual study of strength and vulnerability, inspired by the Early Netherlandish style of Petrus Christus. I chose this aesthetic because the women in these paintings project a unique sense of being both unwavering and profoundly alone.

For me, this style highlights a harsh reality in modern medicine. Despite our technological innovations, the experience of being a patient often feels like living in a "New Middle Ages." Behind closed doors, you are frequently unheard; physical pain is dismissed as psychological, and personal dignity is ignored by a cold, systemic indifference.

My attire in this photograph is constructed entirely from objects found on the streets of Munich. This use of "found objects" is a metaphor for self-reconstruction - an attempt to rebuild my identity from the shards of the city at a time when my own body felt fractured. By turning discarded debris into noble garments, I want to show that dignity is an internal choice, not an external condition.

This work is a manifesto against "waiting for life to resume." While illness is often seen as a pause, I believe that creativity and agency are possible even in the epicenter of pain. It is a triumph of the spirit that refuses to postpone existence, choosing instead to begin here and now with whatever is at hand.