Katarina Wos - Symbolic Photo Art

A stone fell of my heart

We all carry something; worry, sorrow, anxiety, or sadness - that can feel like a physical weight in the chest.

Through my artistic work, I try to capture the moment when that weight lifts. That feeling of relief when something inside us lets go and we can suddenly breathe again - as if stones are rising from within.

After a divorce, I went through a deep personal crisis. I felt consumed by inner demons. One day, I said to myself: Enough is enough. I began working actively with my thoughts and behavior. It was a long process, but eventually a shift happened - I felt well. The heaviness in my chest was gone. That’s when the photo series "A stone fell of my heart" was born.

Each image in the series contains a symbolic stone - representing a thought, feeling, or experience that has been released. The stones float in mid-air, frozen in the moment of relief.

This project is an invitation to reflect. During my own process, I realized how powerful our thoughts are. They shape how we experience the world. When we shift our inner perspective, the outer world begins to change too. My hope is that these images remind us: even in dark times, there is hope. We can't always control what happens to us - but we can choose how we respond.

To create the floating stones, I’ve used various techniques: sometimes hanging stones on strings and removing them in Photoshop, other times capturing them mid-air with very short shutter speeds. These are real stones - thrown and caught in that brief, weightless moment.

A stone fell of my heart

Beloved Film and a Stone

In 2020, I began my photo series “A Stone Fell of my Heart”, a project that continues to evolve. During the pandemic, I watched a lot of films and became fascinated by their emotional power. This inspired me to start incorporating film characters into my photography. I create the characters myself – either drawn or sculpted in clay - and then photograph them in different settings.

At first, the series had the provisional title “A Stone Fell of my Heart: Part 2 - Film”, but today it's called “Beloved Film and a Stone”. A selection of the images is shown at the bottom of this page.

The Impact of Film

Film lets us escape into fantasy - or reflect on reality. Like art, it can ease pain, bring joy, and offer comfort. But it also influences how we think, feel, and even who we want to be. We often identify with fictional characters, who then appear everywhere: in fashion, art, advertising, and home décor.

Through my images, I want to both celebrate and question the way we relate to film and its icons. But above all, I want to spread joy, spark reflection – and remind you that no matter how heavy life feels right now, things can get better.

Beloved Film and a Stone

Dualism

The series is about layers. About the city’s layers, about the contrast to nature and it’s symbiosis with the same. It’s about life versus the artificial; the finite versus the infinite.

I began experimenting with double exposure in 2003, when I accidentally exposed an entire roll of film twice. Since then, I've been drawn to the dreamlike quality of layered images — the sense of transparency, depth, and the element of surprise when unexpected compositions emerge on their own.

My work is partly inspired by Maurits Cornelis Escher, especially his ability to present multiple perspectives within a single image — inviting the viewer to shift their perception and engage their imagination.

These photographs are created using a digital camera, with all multiple exposures made in-camera, allowing the process to remain intuitive and spontaneous.

Dualism - multiple exposures

Photo: Tommy Eriksson

About me

My name is Katarina Wos, and I was born in 1980. Photography has been a major part of my life for many years. I studied photography at Kulturama in Stockholm and at the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) in Gdańsk, Poland.

I'm a cheerful, photo-obsessed photographer who finds it hard to stop once I get started – much to my family's dismay. I can spend hours photographing a single stone!

In the past, I've worked as a school, corporate, animal, and portrait photographer. Today, I focus primarily on my own projects, with emotions at the heart of my work. It's always been important to me to create images that touch people and bring them joy.

Over the years, my themes have varied: portraits, double exposures; trees, cityscapes – and most recently, my “light stones.”

A photograph can shift a mindset

A photograph can touch something deep within us. It can speak to the heart, awaken memories, or open a new way of seeing the world. When we encounter an image that truly moves us, something stirs inside — something lightens.

That is the feeling I seek to capture through my art. In a world where so many are struggling, I believe it is more important than ever to illuminate another path toward well-being. Our thoughts shape our reality. Having experienced destructive patterns of thinking myself, I have learned how profoundly a shift in perspective can transform one’s inner world.

In the series “A Stone Fell of my Heart”, I explore the moment when the weight is released — when heaviness turns into lightness.

Each image carries a quiet reminder that relief is possible, even in the midst of life as it is. We all benefit from slowing down, pausing to reflect, and turning inward.

Through my images, I wish to remind viewers that the weight can lift — and that hope remains, even in our darkest moments.