TITLE: Self-portraits, Gelatin Silver Prints

Self-portraits, Gelatin Silver Prints

This body of work explores the complex and often ambiguous relationship between the internal self and its external representation. Through a series of black-and-white self-portraits, I investigate how identity is shaped, distorted, and revealed—both by internal consciousness and the outward gaze. These images are not intended as literal reflections, but as symbolic expressions of psychological and emotional states.

Inspired by Carl G. Jung’s Man and His Symbols and influenced by the visual experimentation of László Moholy-Nagy and the gender-defiant work of Claude Cahun, this series positions the self as a shifting subject—one that resists fixed interpretation. The work invites viewers to consider how identity is both performed and perceived, fragmented yet continuous.

Each image is created using a hybrid process that merges analog and digital techniques. I begin with self-portrait photographs taken on film, which are then layered with hand-drawn patterns and generative visuals coded in Processing. These sketches are animated and projected directly onto photosensitive paper in the darkroom, capturing fleeting moments of abstraction, distortion, and interplay between motion and stillness.

The gelatin silver prints that result are not only photographic artifacts but visual meditations—quiet studies of self-awareness, vulnerability, and transformation. The layering of media mirrors the psychological layering within the self: emotional, symbolic, and intellectual registers converging in a single frame.

By working at the intersection of traditional photographic processes and contemporary generative technologies, this series explores how personal identity can be represented in ways that are both timeless and experimental. It reflects an ongoing inquiry into how we see ourselves, how we are seen by others, and how those perceptions evolve through the act of image-making.

AUTHOR: Mina Hatami (United States)

Mina Hatami is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and educator whose practice resides at the intersection of photography, generative art, and new media. Her work investigates themes of identity, memory, and transformation through a lens of visual experimentation and poetic inquiry. Mina holds an MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from Radford University.

Through collaborations with museums, artists, and institutions, she has developed immersive visual experiences that fuse analog traditions with contemporary digital processes. Her practice is grounded in research and driven by a deep curiosity about the human psyche and the visual language of selfhood.