HELENE SCHMITZ

(b. 1960, Stockholm)

Through her photography, Helene Schmitz explores humanity’s complicated relationship to Nature and the elements, to time and transience. Schmitz’s works often deal with conditions in the natural world that are about to shift. In her landscapes we can experience movements and transformation that turn what has been familiar into something unfamiliar. Her photographic suites are often reflections on how the elements violently intertwine with human culture and activities.

Part of her artistic practice is dedicated to plants and she has a deep interest in the botanical world- also depicting also how plants were described during the Enlightenment. More recently, she has studied how human activities inscribe themselves in the contemporary landscape.

Schmitz has a BA in Film and Art History. Her numerous solo shows in Sweden include Galleri Flach (2023), Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde (2018), Skellefteå Konsthall (2017), Fotografiska Stockholm (2016). She has participated in several group exhibitions, including The Romantic Eye at Nationalmuseum Stockholm (2024), Human / Nature at Fotografiska New York (2024), A HOME at Thielska Galleriet (2022)

Schmitz is also doing solo shows internationally: Galerie Maria Lund, Paris(2024), House of Sweden, Washington (2021), Fotografiska, Tallinn (2021), Fotografiska New York (2020), Fotografisk Center Copenhagen (2019), Turn Gallery, New York (2017) International group shows include In Bloom, Fotografiska Stockholm (2023), Snowflakes and other Surprises, Nordic Photographic Center Oulu, Finland (2023), Fotografisk Center Copenhagen (2022), Feral Atlas Collective, Sharjah Architecture Triennial (2019), Feral Atlas Collective, Istanbul Biennial (2019), Herbarium Fotografi og Botanik, Fotografisk Center Copenhagen (2017), QPN #19 CHAOS, Nantes (2015).

Schmitz’s artistic œuvre has also been featured in several award-winning books where she has collaborated with writers, philosophers and historians of ideas, including Thinking Like a Mountain (2018), Borderlands (2015), Ur Regnskogens Skugga (2011), System och Passion (2007) and Blow Up (2003).

The book Thinking Like a Mountain won the Swedish Publishing Prize in 2019. Both Blow Up and Ur Regnskogens Skugga were nominated for the Swedish literary prize August Prize.