dromsjel (German, b. 1987) is the name Pierre Schmidt uses for his digital collage and illustration practice in Berlin. He reworks found vintage erotic photographs into surreal, psychedelic scenes, melting and distorting bodies and faces until they sprout colors, flowers, or dissolve into portals. His imagery draws on classical and death metal music, the films of David Lynch, and the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Hegel.
He started out working digitally in Photoshop and Illustrator before moving into graphic design, and worked briefly at an agency before leaving to focus on his own work. He sources vintage erotic photographs from online archives such as Tumblr and Flickr, as well as flea markets and secondhand bookshops, then repaints them by hand with a Wacom tablet in Photoshop, aiming to keep the retouched image close to the grain of the original photograph.
