PERSONAL STRUCTURES

In her work, Lena Schabus uses digital image manipulation to create an image-inherent reality that only subtly departs from the familiar, with interventions becoming visible upon closer inspection. Using image compositing, she edits, collages, and alters photographs so seamlessly that they often appear conventional at first glance. Yet her works evoke a quiet unease, as they depict not reality itself but speculative, alternative, or even dystopian scenarios.

This tension arises from both imagined and real threats. While some images draw on science fiction or primal fears, others reflect the consequences of human intervention in nature. Environments shaped for human benefit reveal their destructive potential, as artificial structures increasingly overtake the natural world.

Through digital manipulation, Schabus condenses and intensifies subjective perceptions of place, capturing impressions that exceed what a single photograph can convey. Her composed images ultimately come closer to lived reality than purely photographic representations.