Self Portraits II; (2003-2023)
For me, self-portraiture, as a form of self-representation signifies both subject and object, vehicle, and space. I am interested in how experiences around identity, exile and migration are intertwined through reflection, memory and self-portrait as a tool. I start my working process in an environment where the surroundings become my image. The vantage point of my self-portraits is important, I often put myself in the center of the image, the reason is to be surrounded by the environment and to meet the gaze of viewer straightforward. I work intuitively - improvising the familiarity of everyday life twisted with some sort of distortion or perspective that is not in there. I don’t know exactly what I am looking for, so the process becomes like a moving image of examining gestures forward and backward to find itself truthful. In my late work I have finished the image editing digitally. As for props or costumes, I try to keep it close to where I am. I could wear my father’s costumes or my mother’s dresses, or I have found an item to pick up from where I stand. I am interested in combining documentary photography with the concept of staged photography. Part of the process is also to find friction and tense between assimilation and resistance to the space and surroundings. I play with or against the idea of reality, identity, class, and ideology. Geographically the locations are Sweden, former Yugoslavia, Serbia, Montenegro, Germany and England. In my imaginary world they are universal.
- Snežana Vučetić Bohm
