Elena Helfrecht
‘Plexus’
by Elena Helfrecht, published by Void.
Sold out from the publisher.
“In imagery, physical spaces can become characters in their own right, particularly in the absence of people. A potent example can be found in Elena Helfrecht’s new photo book, Plexus, which seems to ask: if walls really could talk, what would they reveal?”
Megan Williams — Creative Review
Plexus
Following the death of her grandmother, artist Elena Helfrecht embarked on a photographic journey through her family’s estate in Bavaria. Employing the interiors, objects and archives, she began to explore the ideas of inherited trauma and postmemory—the relationship following generations have to the traumas of those who came before.
In her black and white photographs, Helfrecht uses the house and its contents to stage an allegorical play. The interiors and still lifes, which at first glance appear to show mundane objects and scenes, become increasingly unsettling: stalactite-like deposits drip sideways from walls, dark chasms open up beneath the floor boards, a snake coils around a dolls’ house and chairs hang from the beams. As the narrative progresses, motifs of eggs, birds and fleshy growths (a nod to the title, ‘Plexus’—a network of nerves or vessels) are interwoven with archival family photographs, hinting at links and connections between inscrutable symbols, people and places.
“In the process of reconnecting the fragmentary history of my female lineage, the term ‘re-membering’ becomes literal. Immersing myself into this story, I fill the gaps with dreams, associations and imagined scenes to create a narrative transgressing personal and national boundaries. The objects and architecture of the house become parabolic proxies and open a gate between the past and the present.”
Elena Helfrecht
Helfrecht’s images symbolically allude to the unreal and imaginary creeping into recollections of personal and cultural histories. Confronting a past spanning four generations, ‘Plexus’ represents through photographs the intersecting and reverberating echoes of mental health, war and history.
The book features a short story by Camilla Grudova, who was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list 2023. Grudova’s piece ‘The House Surgeon’ revolves around a disturbing growth that silently develops under the floorboards of a family home, drawing further upon the themes of inherited trauma presented through Helfrecht’s photographs.
The House Surgeon
The book features a short story by Camilla Grudova, who was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list 2023. Grudova’s piece ‘The House Surgeon’ revolves around a disturbing growth that silently develops under the floorboards of a family home, drawing further upon the themes of inherited trauma presented through Helfrecht’s photographs.
Plexus
Sold out
24 x 30 cm
104 pages
1000 copies
Open Spine Hardcover with French folds
Text by Camilla Grudova
ISBN 978-618-5479-28-2
Elena Helfrecht
Elena Helfrecht, born in Bavaria in 1992, is a German visual artist known for her dreamlike and surreal photographic works. Her practice mainly revolves around phenomena of consciousness, combining individual experiences with collective history. Her work has been exhibited at South London Gallery (UK), Galleria Civica Cavour (IT), The Benaki Museum (GR), Palácio das Artes (BR), Peckham 24 (UK), Photo Vogue Festival (IT), and Encontros da Imagem (PT). She is a recipient of the British Journal of Photography International Photo Award, a Sony World Photo Award, the Camera Work Award and the AOP Student Award. She was selected as one of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries and nominated for the FOAM Paul Huf Award. Recently, Void selected her as one of the Futures Photography Talents. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, ZEIT Magazin, Financial Times Weekend, The British Journal of Photography, Granta, Der Greif, and Source Magazine.
Featured in
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‘Plexus’ by Elena Helfrecht is out of print.
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✳︎ Medalist — Deutschen Fotobuchpreis 2024 — Bildband Künstlerische Fotografie
✳︎ Shortlisted — The Book Awards (Prix du Livre d’Auteur) 2024 — Le Rencontres d’Arles
✳︎ Shortlist – FotoBus Library Award 2024
✳︎ Runner-Up – Sony World Photography Awards 2020
Photo-Eye Favorite Books of 2023 — Josef Chladek -
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ENGLAND, Picnic
ENGLAND, University of Salford
GERMANY, Fotobus Library
GREECE, National Library of Greece
GREECE, Void
ICELAND, Ströndin Library
IRELAND, The Library Project
LATVIA, ISSP
ROMANIA, Photo Romania Festival at Grain Lab
USA, Bethel University Library
USA, Maryland Institute College of Art (Decker Library)
USA, MoMA Library
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Photograph: Elena Helfrecht
Text: Camilla Grudova
Edit, Design: João Linneu, Myrto Steirou
Printing: Jelgavas tipogrāfija
Binding: Jelgavas tipogrāfija
Language: English
Proofread: Jim Reeve
Text Edit: Susanna Fahle
Font: PP Räder Regular by Pangram, Pangram
Elena Helfrecht © for the photographs
CamIlla Grudova © for the text
Void © for this edition