The Poe Trees, Cantos I – IV

A visual topography of melancholy in the tradition of Dark Romanticism and the literary universe of Edgar Allan Poe.

Julia Murakami "The Poe Trees – Canto I", 2026 , Canson Baryta Prestige II, 16 cm x 12 cm.
Julia Murakami "The Poe Trees – Canto II", 2026 , Canson Baryta Prestige II, 16 cm x 12 cm.
Julia Murakami "The Poe Trees – Canto III", 2026 , Canson Baryta Prestige II, 16 cm x 12 cm.
Julia Murakami "The Poe Trees – Canto IV", 2026 , Canson Baryta Prestige II, 12 cm x 16 cm.

The Poe Trees, Cantos I–IV (2024 – 2026)

Julia Murakami’s photo series “The Poe Trees – Cantos I–IV” is a visual poem about melancholic winter days rooted in the tradition of Dark Romanticism and the literary universe of Edgar Allan Poe. Transcending a strictly documentary representation of nature, photography here serves as an analytical instrument for unearthing traditional topoi of psychological disquiet.

The interplay of bare branches, crows, and a church evokes a dense, tangible atmosphere of the morbid and the sacred.

The division into Cantos I–IV underscores the narrative, almost literary character: Each chapter unfolds a visual canto that rhythmically varies the motif of the landscape, acting as visual treatises on the aesthetics of melancholy within dreamlike in-between worlds.