Send your desire
In this series, I am a different kind of creator than usual. All the images I create for this series are based on self-portraits that people send me.
I was intrigued by the kinds of images people would provide and how they could sometimes transform completely in the darkroom. In short, I turn the digital images into a paper negative. With such a negative and light-sensitive paper, you can make an analog print. The fact that I use old paper for this process makes it all the more unpredictable—and often more beautiful.
In my call for submissions, I am not asking about the desires of others (if only because you can't truly "photograph" that). Instead, I pose the question: what does it mean to photograph yourself? The self-portrait always serves as an expression of the creator’s self-image. It bears the traces of our visual culture and a person’s life story, no matter how simple or superficial a selfie may seem.
Photography, in this sense, is an "acte de désir." Whether it is about identity, beauty, imagination, the body, the gaze, or an action—whoever photographs themselves (and dares to be seen) does so out of desire.
