SELF-PORTRAIT WITH CÉLIA ZANGHI’S MASK

Self-portrait, 2021
Analogue black-and-white photography
Hasselblad 500 C/M
Carl Zeiss Planar 80 mm f/2.8
Kodak Tri-X 400
Self-developed in Rodinal
Hand-printed in the darkroom on ILFORD MGRC
Silver gelatin print
30.5 × 40.6 cm

In this self-portrait, the face — traditionally the primary site of recognition and identity — is concealed behind a mask by Célia Zanghi.

Yet concealment does not produce disappearance. Through the openings of the mask, the eyes remain directly present, creating a tension between the living face and the constructed face placed before it.

The mask simultaneously protects, transforms and displaces identity. It becomes another surface through which the self is perceived: neither entirely hidden nor completely revealed.

The conventional relationship between portrait and likeness is therefore disturbed. The photograph no longer asks simply “Who is this person?”, but rather “Where does presence reside when the face is no longer fully visible?”

Within Portrait / Presence, the self-portrait becomes an encounter between body, mask and photographic image — between identity and representation, concealment and revelation, self and other.