Karolina Burlikowska Photographs Cherries In Brandy Glasses And Flowers Through Rain Finding Joy In Nature And Contrast

Creative Boom: Inspiration Photography Karolina Burlikowska photographs cherries in brandy glasses and flowers through rain – finding joy in nature and contrast Working across still life, collage and mixed media, the London-based Polish photographer is drawn to details that feel "slightly off, slightly magical". Written By: Ayla Angelos 10 June 2026 Art direction & set design, Miguel Morte It started with a friend's Sony Ericsson phone in Poland in the early 2000s. Karolina Burlikowska got hold of it and started taking pictures. She begged her parents for a camera.

She spent hours after school on DeviantArt and Tumblr, looking at what other people were making and trying things herself. "I got obsessed" is the phrase she uses, and it describes her entire journey that followed. After a year studying at Akademia Fotografii in Warsaw, where she first encountered professional photographers and began to understand what a practice could look like, she moved to London. After years of assisting on kids' shoots, high-fashion, food, and TV ads, she absorbed how different photographers and assistants worked until her own rhythm gradually revealed itself.

She now works primarily in still life, moving between digital and analogue, shooting on a proper camera or just her phone, scanning, printing, and reworking images until they feel right. This year, she became commercially represented worldwide by Making Pictures. Terra Incognita, 2026. Design Studio Salina Terra Incognita, 2026. Design Studio Salina Personal work The images she makes are vivid and slightly strange. A cherry suspended on a long stem inside a brandy glass, the liquid below it layered in bands of yellow and red. A grid of sweets, like gummy bears and small figurines in every colour, arranged like a scientific sample.

A flower photographed through a wet surface, its petals blurring into something translucent and barely there. Across it all runs a consistent aesthetic that's clinical and ordered, but also very much playful and alive. "I'm drawn to contrasting feelings," she says. When it comes to the creative process, Karolina takes herself outdoors and into nature, observing the small details most people walk past. I'm drawn to small details, disrupted patterns, reflective surfaces, natural phenomena – anything that feels slightly off, slightly magical." But she is clear that inspiration arrives during the making, not before.

"I just follow what catches my eye," she says, "and try to stay open to where it takes me." On shoot days, she arrives with a plan and a lighting idea, then allows herself to deviate if the structure starts to feel too rigid. "Ultimately, I want to have fun and play a little when shooting my own ideas." Set design, Lucy Webster Set design, Sarah Hardy SELECTION Wallpaper* Design Awards issue, 2026 The project she is most proud of right now is Terra Incognita, which means 'unknown land' in Latin.

It's a recently completed self-published zine designed by Eugenia Luchetta at Studio Salina, formed of collage and mixed media built from her own photography – featuring spikey compositions and bold, textural colour formations. The premise of the project grew from her instinct to observe nature without affecting it in any way, and it also reflects that 90 per cent of her work consists of physically manipulated prints.

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While the article discusses an interesting approach to visual storytelling in branding, it does not represent a major shift or breakthrough in the industry, making it moderately impactful and relevant.