Elena Helfrecht

Elena Helfrecht and Teri Varhol’s debut photobook is a compilation of their two stories, ‘The Swallow’ and ‘The Cage’. These act like telegrams between worlds, merging distant places into a single space as the pair navigate Prague, London, Bavaria and the Alps during the global lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.

In Augury, sublime landscapes and natural phenomena take on the surreal and fantastic as the artists capture them through layers of mysticism. Iconography and superstition are woven together to create visceral narratives of distorted consciousness, nature’s mutations and the constant tension between light and dark, inside and outside.

As writer Krasimira Butseva observes in the book’s introduction, the viewer is led through crosses marking the stalks of trees, windows concealed, a nest of wasps, mist, an opening in the sky, an author's wound and an onion tree.

Published on March 2022, 120 pages (60 each side), Softcover, 6.3 x 9.25”, Dos-à-dos binding, Silver foil-debossed cover, Offset print on matte paper, Edition of 200.