© Ludwig Nikulski

Opal

Ludwig Nikulski

2020 — Iceland

About this series

In this photographic essay, Ludwig Nikulski reflects on a personal state of remoteness. Captured between the first and second phase of lockdown in Iceland, Nikulski employs text and images to create a poetic mirror of isolation. This disparate narrative is tied together by a thread of personal experience translated through metaphorical landscapes, melancholic portraits, and prose.
“After giving birth my mother nearly died. I was put aside on the first day of my life. The sun was shining bright and left a fish skin structured reflection on the water. I waited for the one-eyed man and was attacked by a black bird, ran away and screamed. Horses turned their back on me, as did Simbi, the Snake-God, who did not like me. Also Siggi, the oldest man from town, was hiding behind his blue car, as if I were the devil. I went down the alley following the music. They call it the Death-Valley. In a window I saw a photograph of Claudia Schiffer, smiling, wearing a cowboy hat. I went closer. Suddenly the door opened, offering a new creation of land, a weird touch
of reality, split up into many pieces, working like an anthill into the descendants of this colorful light.”

© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski
© Ludwig Nikulski

Photographer: Ludwig Nikulski
Nationality: German
Based in: Hannover, Germany
Website: www.ludwignikulski.de
Instagram: @ludwig_nikulski

Ludwig Nikulski (*1989) is a photography based artist located between Hannover and Berlin. He studied fine-arts and philosophy in Greifswald, graduated from photography class at Lette Verein Berlin in 2018 and is currently studying photojournalism in Hannover.
2021 Vonovia Award for Photography, Shortlist
Neustart Kultur Grant, Stiftung Kulturwerk VG-Bildkunst
Research Grant, VG-Bildkunst
2020 Scholarship, stipend by Künstlerhaus Lukas for the „Nes Artist Residency Skagaströnd“, Iceland Nominated for Dokumentarförderpreis Wüstenrotstiftung
2018 „Hello I Love You“ – German Photobook Award „Bronze“ in the category student projects
„Hello I Love You“ – Finalist at the „Award for Emerging Artists Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania“

Exhibitions (Excerpt)
2021 
Rotlicht Festival, Vienna
Kranj Foto Fest, Slovenia
Art Photo BCN, Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona
„Luft und Licht“, Edvard Munch Haus, Warnemünde Online Portfolio Walk, Deutsche Fotografische Akademie
2020 Photobook Week Aarhus
2019 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 18/19 – Frankfurter Buchmesse
Hier und Jetzt, Nachwuchskunstpreis für Bildende Kunst – Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow Transformart Festival, Berlin
no limits, Photography Unlimited, Berlin
Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 18/19 – Goethe-Institut Tokyo
Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 18/19 – Fotoforum Cologne
2018 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 18/19 – Stuttgarter Buchwochen
Seltsame Zeiten, mein Liebling, Kapelle, Berlin
Nachts auf der Sonne, Graduation Show, CRCLR, Berlin
2017 1. Akt, Galerie STP, Greifswald
Die Welt tönt noch, OBEY Showroom, Berlin
2016 Glance vs. Gaze #02, Kunstquartier Bethanien, European Month of Photography, Berlin
2014 Romantic in Abstraction, Caspar-David-Friedrich-Zentrum, Greifswald
Young Professionals, Fotofestival Horizonte, Zingst