The boundary between the real and the imagined is often blurred under the experience of anguish: the demand to be oneself. Today, social networks and algorithms intensify these insecurities, weakening critical thought and fostering isolation. As Henri Michaux noted, “the self is a movement among the crowd”: a fragile, multiple identity in constant transformation.
This work reflects on the mutation of identity through confrontation with the self and the search for refuges where anonymity may be possible. The face, as both mask and stage for hidden emotions, and the body, as a limited extension of being in impossible contexts, constitute the axes of this exploration. (All photographs were taken during a workshop on self-portraiture conducted by Karen Kea.)