Spiral
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PrizeHonorable Mention
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PhotographerKatarina Bienek, Poland
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Date of Photograph2025
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Website
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Instagram
‘Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.’ C.G. Jung
In this series of self-portraits, I construct internal landscapes in which reality dissolves into symbolism and the subconscious emerges as a physical space.
The ammonite, which recurs throughout the series, isn’t a symbol I chose for its aesthetics or mythology. It’s a feeling of moving in circles and encountering the same pain repeatedly. It became the closest visual expression of how trauma persists through repetition.
As the series unfolds, it shifts from a symbol of entrapment to a structure of transformation.
Katarina Bienek is a self-taught Polish fine art photographer working primarily with conceptual self-portraiture. Her images combine staged photography and digital compositing to construct surreal visual narratives.
