“Root System” © Serhii Fett
Ukrainian photographer Serhii Fett transforms familiar places and objects into uncanny compositions that explore the complexities of human experience. Through surreal photography, he places figures, everyday objects, and physical spaces in unexpected relationships, creating images that feel both recognizable and strangely unsettling.
“I’m more interested in creating my own reality than simply observing the one that already exists,” Fett tells My Modern Met. His carefully constructed scenes give him the freedom to explore inner states that resist direct representation, using concealed faces, unusual gestures, and negative space to suggest what remains unseen.
“For me, absence does not necessarily mean disappearance,” he explains. “Sometimes what we cannot see shapes our perception more strongly than the visible elements.” A concealed figure or an ambiguous gesture can shift the meaning of an entire composition, drawing attention to what a photograph withholds as much as what it reveals.
Fett also challenges the conventional relationship between a subject and its surroundings. His figures sometimes seem absorbed by their environments, while objects become extensions of the body. As he puts it, “We do not exist separately from the circumstances, places, and things around us.” These relationships make the environment an active participant in each image, reflecting how our surroundings shape our inner lives.
Color is equally important to Fett’s visual language. He moves between saturated hues and muted tones to establish each photograph’s atmosphere, using color alongside subtle distortions and unexpected arrangements to make ordinary situations feel unfamiliar. He approaches these choices intuitively, guided by the emotional effect he wants to create rather than a fixed visual formula.
“What matters to me is creating an image that first makes an impact visually, rather than explaining a particular state to the viewer,” he says. “An explanation, if one is needed at all, can come later.”
Although Fett constructs his scenes, he remains interested in emotional truth. For him, photography doesn’t need to document an actual event to communicate something real. An invented situation can sometimes express an internal experience more precisely than a straightforward depiction of everyday life. “The viewer does not have to believe that the event actually happened,” he says. “I’m much more interested in whether they recognize something real for themselves within that invented situation.”
That recognition can take different forms. Fett welcomes the associations viewers bring to his work, allowing his photographs to develop meanings beyond his original intentions. He wants each image to maintain its own internal logic without dictating how someone should interpret it. “I want the image to have an internal logic of its own while leaving room for someone else’s experience,” he explains.
This openness gives Fett’s photographs room to shift in tone. An image that initially seems humorous might become unsettling, while an uncomfortable scene can reveal an unexpected absurdity. The compositions offer no single explanation, encouraging viewers to reconsider their first impressions and remain with whatever feelings emerge.
By balancing precise staging with psychological ambiguity, Fett transforms the familiar into something newly charged. His photographs suggest that what we see is only part of the story, leaving the space between the visible and the imagined open to interpretation.
Ukrainian photographer Serhii Fett uses surreal photography to explore the complexities of human experience through carefully staged compositions.
“Harvest Time” © Serhii Fett
“The Bather” © Serhii Fett
“Winter Sea” © Serhii Fett
His photographs merge figures, objects, and environments, using color and unusual spatial relationships to make familiar scenes feel uncanny.
“Magnolia” © Serhii Fett
“Quiet Season” © Serhii Fett
“Standby Mode” © Serhii Fett
“Dead Center” © Serhii Fett
“Emigrant” © Serhii Fett
By playing with absence and ambiguity, Fett creates images that invite viewers to look beyond the visible and find their own meaning in the unexpected.
“If” © Serhii Fett
“Obsession” © Serhii Fett
“I Need To Grow” © Serhii Fett
“Blood Moon” © Serhii Fett
“Office Job” © Serhii Fett
“Light Of Night” © Serhii Fett
