substitutions

“Substitutions” explores how identity shifts once it becomes an image. Using Polaroids reintroduced into the portrait, the series creates a tension between presence and representation, questioning how photographs can both reveal and replace the person the

“Substitutions” explores how identity shifts once it becomes an image. The project examines the relationship between a person and their photographic representation, focusing on the moment when an image begins to stand in for the subject it depicts.The series is built around the physical presence of Polaroid photographs within the frame. Instant images taken earlier reappear in later portraits, sometimes covering parts of the body, sometimes simply placed nearby. Their purpose is not nostalgic but structural: they introduce a temporal gap, bringing a past version of the subject into the present scene.This gesture creates a tension between body and image. The Polaroid represents a fixed moment, while the subject continues to change. As the sequence unfolds, the face becomes less central and the portrait gradually fragments. Identity is no longer presented as unified or stable, but as something mediated and reconstructed through images.Rather than attempting to define the subject, “Substitutions” questions the authority of photography to fully represent a person. It asks how much of ourselves remains when an image begins to replace us.