Conceptual nominee

„Amaranthine“ is the new series of self-portraits by photographer Helin Bereket. With props borrowed from Charlie Chaplin‘s famous „Tramp“, pantomime make-up, swimming costumes from the early 1920s and 1950s brutalist architecture scenography, we see an actress embodying different styles and epochs. She plays all roles of the story, which is polychronic, dissonant, and multilayered. Striking different poses, she blends aesthetics of classical sculpture, grand manner painting, silent film, slapstick, traditional Japanese arts, contemporary fashion photography. At times the actress is gracious and monumental, at others contemplative, calm and peaceful. Sometimes she invites and even teases the viewer, nonetheless she is a serious entertainer. Staged in monochrome black and white photo mode the images transpose us in times bygone, yet nothing is old in them. We recognize newly designed architecture, the deployed photo technology is cutting-edge, and we start to think we might as well encounter the actress, who is our contemporarian. Bereket recycles not the past but the present, our current urban space, style techniques and technology, thus creating a confusing palimpsest of times open to infinite subjective interpretations. Her actress is as immortal as the art she revives and creates anew.

Helin Bereket is a freelance photographer from Berlin. After completing her bachelor's degree in architecture and her master's degree in art, she started to work interdisciplinary. She has naturally developed her own clear style of photography, with which she expresses herself and her feelings. Her architectural and artistic background can be seen in her photos. She likes to play with spaces and colors, light and shadow and geometries.

In addition to photography, she works with brands for social media campaigns, creates creative concepts and individual solutions for companies, gives workshops and manages social media accounts. She has completed many collaborations with well-known brands such as Nikon, Adobe, Samsung, Audi, Swatch.

She shares her daily life, work and travels on her Instagram account @helinbereket.