Fine Art nominee

The main theme in my image is the struggle of becoming an adult and leaving the childhood behind, when you realise that life it's actually not as easy as you imagined it, that you have to work hard in order to achieve what you want and that the reward comes later, also known as delayed gratification.
In the image I've created, the character has a doll in her hand and is looking down with sadness and nostalgia. She knows that it is time to grow up but she is also scared of becoming an adult. She is surrounded by fog, like the uncertainty of being an adult and the unknown she must face in order to get there.
The character stands with her feet in the water under a giant arch. She seems so small, which is exactly how she feels like in her struggle to find her right path. She must let her childhood behind (symbolised with the doll), start moving and get out of the water (her uncertainty) and grow up.
I think most young adults feel that uncertainty of what actually means being an adult and don't really know how to go about it.

Emanuela Nesko is a fine art photographer and visual artist currently living in Germany.

From an early age, she found it easier to express herself visually rather than in words, using mediums like drawing, painting, photography and drama. Childhood traumas gave Emanuela the urge to seek connections with people around her in ways that felt safe to her. During her studies at the University of Fine Arts in Madrid, she started using photography as a form of therapy to heal from past emotional and mental wounds and connect with her deepest self.

Following graduation, she moved from Spain to Germany, where she gained experience working as a portrait photographer. After a while Emanuela realized she had lost the connection with why she was using photography to express herself. That realization determined her to change paths. Currently Emanuela works with conceptual and surreal art, inviting viewers into otherworldly scenarios. Through her work, she seeks to connect with others who have also been subject to emotional and physical neglect. She aims to grow awareness about childhood traumas, which affect people throughout adulthood if suppressed and emphasize the attention these experiences require as a part of the healing process.