Grim

Photographer

D. M. Terblanche

Grim

14 Feb, 2026

Grim is a dark fantasy and allegory created during long walks through Germany’s Ahr Valley and rural west. Told like a fable, it follows a lonely child living in a cold, wind-blown house on a hill above a forest filled with strange, unearthly beings. The forest calls to her, softly, insistently, until, driven by isolation and longing, she finally enters its depths. There she meets a god who offers transcendence in exchange for her spine. When she agrees, the god plants it in the earth, and the world that unfolds, the faces, creatures, and landscapes that emerge, is the dream her spine dreams as it takes root. The series exists within that dream: a meditation on transformation, sacrifice, and the blurred boundary between myth and memory.

About the photographer

D. M. Terblanche

D. M. Terblanche (b. 1998, Pretoria, South Africa) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist working primarily in photography. Their practice focuses on narrative documentary and portraiture, drawing from storytelling traditions across media to explore both personal and constructed realities. In 2025, Terblanche was selected for Gen Z: Shaping a New Gaze, an international group exhibition by Photo Elysée. They were also one of ten international winners of Magnum x Polaroid - Real Life is Not Black and White (2024), with work exhibited at Paris Photo 2024. Other recognitions include winning Emergentes 2023 - International Photography Award Encontros da Imagem, and being featured in GUP Magazine’s FRESH EYES 2024 and THEN THERE WAS US - Ones to Watch 2023. Terblanche is a member of Through the Lens Collective, and has been published both in print and online.