Les Clichés sont conservés

While we are surrounded by images of others – and of ourselves –  the experience of looking at one’s own portrait, and the role of the sitter in shaping it, are rarely considered. This project centers around the often overlooked position of the sitter in the making of a photographic portrait.

Participants were invited to bring an image they wished to imitate for the camera and to reflect on the result. The project consists of twelve ‘enhanced’ portraits and forms part of The Situative Portrait, a doctoral research project developed at PhDArts (Leiden University and the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague) that investigates a relational approach to photographic portraiture.

Rather than windows on the world or direct lines to a sitter’s essence, the work proposes understanding portraits as semiotic signs of absence, foregrounding acts of withholding and concealment. From this perspective, the project ultimately asks: what are we actually looking at when we look at a photographic portrait?

A selection of works was exhibited at EST-Art, Leiden, in 2025.

Les Clichés sont conservés, 2025 Archival Pigment print, 50 x 70 cm / 19,69 x 27,56 inch