Capturing the space between the ethereal and the haunted, Cristina Coral has created her own aesthetic world — a presentation of fragments of a greater narrative of twisting lines. Even in their muted hue, the pictures are rich with telling color, building a story of romantic Surrealism and encouraging the imagination to construct its own interpretation along the softly glowing lines of each photograph.

Professionally taking up photography in 2012, Cristina Coral ensares us with the work she produces with her Nikon digital camera. It is the endless facets of beauty that she seeks to discover from light and composition to the models themselves. Alluring, the images are pregnant with emotional weight, arrested in a temporal fixture.

A delicate light permeates each image — the objects gentle, fragile, and prominent. With many of the human subjects situated in unusual positions, the viewer feels distressed and curious. Coral has created the most beutiful and inviting still-frame horror film, intertwining dreams with a sense of discomfort. But it is not horror which dictates the work, or even serves as the prominent sentiment.

Surreal Romanticism freezes in time, the continuation of the story hangs in the ether waiting to be revealed, bur Coral never does so. The precipice is set before us, leaving the next frame of explanation just out of reach. It is that element of non-restriction which leads an intimate journey — a journey of impassioned emotion with no simple, continous line. The transition is seamless, yet detached.

While her work is fiercely unique, regarding Coral's photographs is akin to viewing Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain as if produced within a creative aesthetic born out of the collaboration of Wes Anderson and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. A simultaneous familiarity and confusion flow through the series, an exploration of the depth within, and all the indescribable pieces that make up the whole and continue to change and effect. Both Surrealism and Romanticsm are heavily tied to emotions and the infinite permuations by which they can manifest themselves. Coral never skips a beat, but glides tenderly through each one and offers a contemporary structure for their production, recognition and dissemination. It is not a balance that we see, but the coexistence of a myriad of opposing sensations and sentiments. The harmonious interaction is trenchant in its performance. Coral's photographs do not capture objects, but ideas. Symbolism is imbued and interpreted freely, a projection of the sinews of the personal and the internal.

Cristina Coral will exhibit her work at the Hong Kong Fair in May, and her work will also illustrate the 2018/2019 production of La Gioconda by Amilcar Ponchielli at the Royal Opera House of Brussels La Monnaeie de Munt.