The artist Sonja Hesslow was born in 1988 in Sweden. She primarily creates photographic art that can be described as surreal and dreamlike.

The technique she uses is called light painting, where she photographs with long exposure times and illuminates her subjects with a flashlight. This gives the images a three-dimensional quality, often leading people to ask what technique has been used. She wants to own the entire process, so she builds her own props, serves as her own model, photographs, retouches, and even prints her images herself. Often, the creatures in her images are miniatures. Hesslow loves contrasts, such as the contrast between light and dark, large and small, or warm and cold.

Sonja pours her entire soul into her images, often weaving her own dreams into them. For her, the camera is primarily a tool to collect images, but it’s only when she assembles them digitally that the magic happens. Hesslow is a perfectionist down to her fingertips and spends countless hours perfecting every tiny detail.

Hesslow draws her main inspiration from nature. There, she imagines what it would be like to be a very small creature, becoming one with nature. It becomes a sanctuary, a place free from evil, where everything is purely beautiful and serene. Perhaps this is something we need today, given the state of the world?