Helzle shows people with eyes closed in outer space, black and white. They act "quiet" as if they had taken a different reality. Reduced onto the face they are out of touch, feeling, grasping. Unlike the death mask, showing the unemotional face, we experience the traits of the people portrayed in contemplative attitude. Do not sleep. They stand or sit. Their features are disturbing awake, tense. The absence of color alienated and suggests timelessness, at the same time, a different way of seeing. The facial expression comes to the fore. The black and white aesthetic awareness of the fine lines, contrasts and contours. What usually goes unnoticed becomes the focus of perception: muscle contractions, facial wrinkles, the movements of the mouth, asymmetries. With his 120 Portraits image cycle "Close-Your-Eyes" Helzle undermines the conventions of the portrait. Without hesitation he calls the vulnerability of the individual. In their defenselessness is the grandeur of the faces. Ricarda Geib art historian