About the photographer

Monika Poul is a photographer and visual artist based in Gdańsk, Poland. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Art in Gdańsk (2002), she creates conceptual art through photography, recently expanding her practice to include AI-generated imagery. She uses AI as an additional tool, sometimes incorporating her own photographs as reference points. Her work often straddles the line between reality and imagination, blending abstraction with everyday life to explore complex emotions and relationships. 

Poul’s photography is a contemplation of minimalism, isolation, and the tension between presence and absence. Her work often features symbolic elements like plants and water, representing emotional portals and spaces of inner reflection. Through these visual metaphors, she explores themes of loneliness, silence, and the fragmented nature of human existence. Her images evoke a dreamlike quality, inviting viewers to question the boundary between the real and the surreal. 

In the Photography Prize Exhibition, Poul presents a series of images that embody this intersection of reality and dream. The works, a mix of photography and AI, convey a sense of suspended isolation, where everyday scenes become metaphors for deeper emotional truths. Her exploration of minimalism and symbolic elements like water invites viewers to connect with the emotional undercurrents of the images. 

Poul’s work has been exhibited in several group shows in Poland, at the State Art Gallery in Sopotand at Art Armoury ASP in Gdańsk in 2002. Other notable exhibitions include XXXVI PhotographicConfrontations (2005), XVII National Photographic Competition: Portrait (2007), and XXVII NationalPhotographic Competition: Portrait (2017). Her work has also been featured in publications such asthe art & literature magazine, sZAFa and the art photography magazine FOTO in Poland.