The Dark Fairytales of Nona Limmen
Zoë Marin
Written by Zoë Marin in Beyond the Frame Photography

The Dark Fairytales of Nona Limmen

Dutch photographer Nona Limmen has a knack for creating photographs make you lean closer, even when you’re not entirely sure what you’re looking at. Her images feel like fragments of a forgotten fairytale, somewhere between a beautiful dream and the sort of nightmare you don’t mind returning to.

Working with mythology, folklore and the stranger corners of human nature, Limmen builds a world populated by witches, vampires and mysterious female figures. It’s dark, certainly, but there’s more to it than a gothic aesthetic. Beneath the shadows lies a very personal search for freedom, comfort and a place to belong.

A World of Her Own

Limmen’s fascination with the unusual goes back to childhood. She spent much of her early years daydreaming, inventing imaginary worlds and dreaming up adventures in places that didn’t exist. Photography eventually gave those ideas somewhere to go. What started as an interest grew into a way of expressing feelings that weren’t always easy to put into words.

Her images don’t explain everything, and that’s part of their appeal. Figures emerge from grainy textures, dense shadows and landscapes that seem to stretch beyond the frame. A face might be blurred, a location barely recognizable. Rather than spelling out a story, Limmen leaves little gaps for us to fill. You can bring your own fears, memories and fantasies into the picture, which makes the experience feel surprisingly intimate.

Not Your Usual Fairytale

Witches, succubi and vampires appear throughout Limmen’s work, but forget the familiar stories about helpless heroines and monsters waiting to be defeated. Her female figures have other plans. They’re sensual, wild and unapologetic, existing somewhere outside the rules that are supposed to define them.

Limmen sees these characters as expressions of the dark feminine, representing parts of ourselves that society often encourages us to hide. There’s something refreshing about that idea. Her witches don’t need rescuing, and her vampires aren’t particularly interested in being forgiven. They simply occupy their own space. In a culture that still has plenty to say about how women should look and behave, these figures feel quietly rebellious. They don’t need to announce their independence. They just have it.

Finding Beauty in the Shadows

Limmen has described photography as a way to explore her own shadow self, the parts of our personalities we tend to suppress or avoid. For her, making art can be cathartic, helping her recognize feelings and patterns that might otherwise remain buried. Darkness, in this sense, isn’t something to defeat. It’s something worth getting to know.

That doesn’t mean every image comes from a painful place. Limmen also talks about the comfort and escapism her work offers, both to herself and to those who encounter it. There’s an interesting contradiction here: her photographs can be unsettling, yet the worlds they depict feel like somewhere you might want to stay. Maybe that’s because they allow room for emotions that don’t fit neatly into everyday life. Not everything uncomfortable is harmful, after all.

Film, Chance and a Little Magic

Limmen is self-taught, and her approach has developed through years of experimentation. Her earlier work made extensive use of medium-format film, double exposures, 35mm cameras and Polaroids, including expired film. Today, she combines analogue and digital photography, working with natural light, lens filters, overlays and layers of texture to create images that seem to hover between reality and imagination.

She also leaves plenty of room for accidents. Rather than forcing every shoot to follow a rigid plan, Limmen allows ideas to develop naturally, often using whatever equipment suits the mood. That openness feels right for work so concerned with mystery. Analogue photography holds a particular fascination for her, too. Watching an image emerge in the darkroom becomes almost ritualistic, a small act of transformation that preserves a fleeting moment and gives it a life of its own.

Although Limmen’s personal projects stand on their own, her imagery has also found its way into the worlds of musicians, including Chelsea Wolfe, Dool and Phoebe Bridgers. Her visual language has also connected with Roadburn Festival, where her work exploring mythology, archetypes and the forces beneath the surface of human nature feels like a natural fit.

What stays with me, though, isn’t a particular collaboration or even the striking presence of her subjects. It’s the feeling that these photographs come from somewhere just beyond the edge of ordinary experience. Limmen doesn’t make darkness look harmless, exactly. She makes it feel worth approaching. Her work reminds us that the things we find strange, frightening or difficult to explain can hold unexpected beauty. Sometimes, looking into the shadows is how we find our way back to ourselves.

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