/ 2026 / Portraiture / Self-Portrait

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Olesja Brandt, Germany
• Date of Photograph
  18.01.2026
• Instagram
  @alesja_brandt

This self-portrait explores identity as a mutable state. By covering my body in clay, I transform my skin into a sculptural surface, erasing personal markers and placing myself between living body and object. The clay becomes both protection and restraint, revealing the tension between vulnerability and control. The absence of color heightens texture: cracks and traces of touch become a language of fragility and inner silence.

Olesja Brandt is a Germany-based emerging photographer working across portraiture, architecture, and conceptual image-making. Her practice is rooted in a minimalist visual language shaped by clarity of line, emotional restraint, and an interest in the relationship between outer form and inner experience. Through photography, she explores themes of identity, vulnerability, silence, and transformation, seeking psychological presence and sincerity in faces, bodies, and spaces. She has developed her practice independently and through masterclasses with contemporary artists.