Reveal (2023) – Starting a self portrait series with an object “mirror”

“Reveal” is part of the series Reflection. This is a self-portrait. I love this surreal image that tell stories about “Revealing what is concealed.” She turns away from the viewer and reveal herself to the viewer at the same time. Why her face broken into mirror pieces? Who’s hand stretch out to hold on a piece of broken mirror? There are many interpretations and I would love for you to discover your own interpretation.

I am a hoarder. Not a super crazy one but I do collect objects that tickle my fancy over the years. Mirror is one of the objects.

Objects can create a limited realm to be creative. Because when we are limited with resource we have to very creative to find solutions. If there is no limitation, I can use anything to create a conceptual image, I would be lost in the infinite possibilities of ideas and choices.

I have several mirrors, most of them are chipped or broken. I love their random and imperfect shapes instead of the ones we can buy from shops. The imperfection feels human to me.

Every now and than I would go through my storage and find objects that I need to get rid of in order to create more space for me to collect more stuff…..(the never ending circle).

Initially I created a conceptual image with one of my mirrors. It was challenging because I shot it outdoor near Mgarr (Malta) and took me a while to finish the image called “Unseen the known”. It will be in another post.

And then as I was purchasing books from World of Books about surrealist artists and their paintings, one of the books I bought is about Rene Magritte who was a Belgian surrealist artist. The paintings in the book that stun me the most are the ones with a mirror. He was a genius. I created “Forward” prior seeing his painting “The son of men” which has a similar composition concept. I felt the instant connection with Magritte, my long lost brother. Immediately he becomes my new best friend. I couldn’t stop gushing his art for weeks. He was not only a master painter with extraordinary skill but also the concept of the painting was out of this world.

His paintings inspired me to create more conceptual images with mirrors. So I decided to create a series of self portraits with mirrors. I call the series Reflections.

I started this series 4 months ago, my plan is to create a series of 7 images. 3 shoots are done, 4 more to go. Watch this space, come along as I share this journey with you.

The course for creating this image click here