Ever since I discovered photography, I have been fascinated by surrealism, by the mystery beyond us and beyond the moment, by "nothing is what it seems". My ongoing project "Identity" is inspired by the artworks of René Magritte.
And the question that grinds me is "If I become like you, how will you ever know me?".
The "Identity" project takes place on several levels and in this first part the inner conflict intervenes when you want to live with a person, a part of you transforms to adapt to the demands of life as a couple and the other part of you wants to remain unaltered. Self-censorship regarding one's own identity and authenticity is a symptom of believing that this is the only way we can fit into some patterns and live as a couple, in different groups or society. In truth, we all have to manage a two-way conflict: with the particular, personal identity itself on one end, and the social and cultural norms it embodies on the other end.
Firstly, in order to keep the one you love close to you, you have to adjust to their behaviour, attitude and habits in such a way so that you don't forsake your own identity. Balance is crucial, and tipping it in any direction leads to negative consequences for everyone involved.
Secondly, many seem to think that one's identity is just a reunion of traits and characteristics specific to the totality of the ethnic, social or economic groups they adhere to. But identity is deeper than that, is a form of innate human subjectivity that one finds only from wielding conflict with the conformity within us, in regards to any groups, and not just those that are, so to speak, mainstream. Our repressed subjectivity takes the form of a latent disease that clouds our future in ways that are unimaginable, and to stifle it is to forsake ourselves.
