Who Am I
“The time of truth is over.
We live in a moment of the Universal lie.
Never was there so much lying.
We live a lie every day.” —Jose Saramago
Photography has been in my life since I was young, street photography, portraiture, editorial, documentary and botanicals have been what attracted me over time. This is the first time that I am taking self portraits, I never had the desire to photograph myself. Now as I am aging getting close to 80, I have become interested in doing self-portraits. My creative process is very intuitive, it is based on emotions, memories and what is currently happening in my life. I enjoy the process without knowing the outcome, I found it surprising that I did like making self-portraits, especially now that we live in such a dystopic time.
There are so many losses happening both to me and in the world. I am facing the loss of long-time friends to death, my husband’s declining health and my own aging, which is a privilege as long as I am reasonably healthy.
When starting this project I looked at the family archives, documents and albums that I inherited from my family, who have all died. The images brought back so many memories both pleasant and of hardships. Memory is very complex, looking at old photos of myself I became flooded with memories of the time the photos were taken, I wonder if I can trust my memories, did I imagine them, did I remember because I heard someone in my family talking about it. I am trying to see what these images mean to me and if I am projecting my feelings unto them.
When I turn the camera on myself eventually truth is revealed, self-portraiture forces me to see who I am now today, what I have achieved and still have to do. What do I want to tell people about who I am, my joys and sorrows, will these images reveal to the viewer who I am?