Camouflaged Self-Portraits By Cherine Fahd

For the ‘Camouflage‘ series, Sydney-based mixed media artist Cherine Fahd creates vibrant self-portraits while hiding from the camera. By covering herself with colorful sheets, only the tiniest body parts can be seen through cut holes. In a statement about the project, Fahd says: “The presentation and representation of self as a posing subject is established via a conscious decision to hide from the camera (and the spectator). A photographic portrait fixes the self to an image and perhaps this is the problem for me. The image is unchanging, the same for all time, unlike the self which is manifold and changeable. An antidote to this is ‘concealment’ allowing for partial disclosure, although what this disclosure makes knowable is also uncertain. The partial visibility of the photograph’s subject pre-empts the spectator’s gaze. The photographs as self-portraits ask you to look for me and in my concealment hope to suggest the uncertainty of the idea of a ‘me’.”

All images © Cherine Fahd