A woman poses for pictures with skulls made of cardboard placed on an altar next to the San Francisco church in Mexico City during the celebration of All Souls Day on November 2, 2015. (Photo by Yuri Cortez/AFP Photo)

Indigenous women participate in the Hanal Pixan (Food of the Souls), in the community of Tres Reyes, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, 31 October 2022. With the Hanal Pixan, the celebration of the Day of the Dead begins Monday to remember people's loved ones in the State of Quintana. (Photo by Alonso Cupul/EPA/EFE)

Actors Ma Sichun (L) and Zhou Dongyu pose backstage after both won the Best Leading Actress award for their movie “Soul Mate” at the 53rd Golden Horse Film Awards in Taipei, Taiwan November 26, 2016. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

The pictures made by Elizabeth Gadd are so beautiful, tranquil, and mesmerizing, that they wash over your soul in a wave of sadness. The same sadness that you feel when hearing a wonderful piece of music. The same sadness that enters your soul when you worry to death about your loved one, but everything turns out to be just fine. These aren’t just pictures… The pieces of art that Elizabeth, a 21-year-old self-taught photographer makes, are windows into fairytales; portals into other dimensions. Works so surreal, that it makes you wonder if the scenes that you are seeing were actually shot on this planet; that they are not figments of Beth’s imagination. (Photo by Elizabeth Gadd)

A view of children mannequins wrapped in purple and white barricade tape placed in front of the Cologne Cathedral, installed there by German artist Dennis Josef Meseg, called “Shattered Souls – in a Sea of Silence”, to protest against the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church in Cologne, Germany on August 3, 2023. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

Wellcome trust employee Zoe Middleton poses behind an artwork entitled “My Soul” by Katharine Dowson, which consists of a laser etched lead chrystal glass formation in the shape of a brain, and was created using the artists own MRI Scan, at Wellcome Collection on March 27, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A half-naked shrine parishioner using a wooden tub pours cold water onto himself during an annual cold-endurance festival at the Kanda Myojin Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, January 10, 2015. Pouring cold water on their bodies is believed to purify their souls. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

Participants bathe in ice-cold water during a ceremony at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, 12 January 2025. 80 men and women took part in the ice water endurance ceremony to purify their souls and pray for good health in the new year. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)