Conceptual nominee

“The essence of trauma is that it overwhelms the brain's ability to cope with reality. Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body.” (Bessel van der Kolk in: The body keeps the score; 2014).

Traumas, experiences from our early lifes, we store and carry with us in our bodies. In my work I investigate the human body as a carrier of previous experiences, in an attempt to give meaning to my own story. By visualizing what I cannot put into words, I process my past and show my inner self in all its facets.

I damage my photos of female nudes in uncomfortable positions to a greater or lesser extent, and then restore them in a certain way, whereby the 'scars' remain visible. With this I want to illustrate illusive trauma.

Because of my working method all my works are unique pieces.

Leonie van der Helm (1973) is a photographer and visual artist based in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Leonie started photographing in 2017. During the covid crisis, she started making close up portraits of people through their living room windows. This project was taken up on by Museum Lakenhal (Leiden), who in 2021 purchased and exhibited ten of Leonie’s so called lockdown portraits. The project was longlisted for the Rabo Photographic Portrait Prize 2022. Some images were also published in Pf Magazine and Museum Hilversum’s publication PANdemIC.

In September 2020 Leonie was chosen to be Leiden’s 8th Stadsfotograaf. In this project she was exploring the concept of ‘home’. The photos and stories were published in Leidsch Dagblad.

In 2022 Leonie started studying at the Photo Academy. She worked on her project 'Oud Zeer' that was published in the online series 'Debute' of Pf magazine in January 2024. This was the prelude to her graduation project 'Naked With The Truth', in which Leonie was exploring the body as carrier of past experiences. Leonie graduated with honor in May 2024. Her work was exhibited during the group exposition EXPOSED in Loods 6 in Amsterdam.