KAI SEBEK

I grew up in fantasy worlds and adventure stories — they were my refuge, a place of freedom and play. That need never left me. Even as an adult, I continue to shift between reality and imagination — and my artistic practice is a way of exploring where that space in between has gone. A narrow threshold — one foot here, one in the other world.

I create visual narratives that feel both familiar and otherworldly. Core of my work is primarily a combination of real landscape or documentary photography and illustration — layering fictional characters and storylines onto documentary foundations. My long-term project Woven Worlds is built on the belief that we are already living in a fairytale world — we just have to learn how to see it again.

I intertwine imagination, narrative, and visual fiction with environmental and scientific themes, because I believe that play and storytelling can be natural tools for learning about the changes our planet is going through. Wonder and adventure are, for me, a gateway to a deeper relationship with nature — and perhaps even a desire to protect it. That’s how it started for me, even as a child. 

I don’t plan my shots in advance. I observe, listen, and let things unfold. I believe that the curiosity we had as children is worth preserving — and that imagination isn’t something we outgrow, but something we’ve simply forgotten how to use. 

Through playful visual storytelling, I aim to awaken a sense of discovery, empathy, and respect for the natural world and its inhabitants. I don’t want to moralize. I want to invite the viewer to become an explorer — the protagonist of their own story. And maybe, in doing so, rediscover a little more of the beautiful world we live in.