Duane Michals is an American self-taught photographer known for creating sequences of photos that explore emotions using text. One of his photos titled "Who am I?" shows a man staring into a mirror, seemingly inspecting his features and searching for his identity as the distortion suggests confusion and low self-esteem. Paul Apal'kin is a Ukraine-based portrait photographer who started in 2010. One photo titled "Infinite" shows a girl with her eyes closed holding a mirror, suggesting insecurity and lack of confidence as she looks away from her reflection. Another photo "Invasion (aka broken mirror)" features a broken mirror held over a girl's face, potentially representing a "broken" true identity beneath

1. z
Research
Kadeejah Kay

2. z
Duane Michals is an
American, self-taught
photographer born in
1932, who started their
photography career in
1958. he is known for
creating a sequence of
photos exploring
emotions and often using
text within their photos.
He found interest in mirror
photography because he felt as if
not enough photographers didn’t
use their creations to explore
feelings, and how there is more
to the person in the photo than
their looks. A lot of his worked is
based on ‘identity’, and how
people feel about their own
identity.
Photo titled ”Who am I?”
“Who am I?” is a black and white
photo of a man staring into a mirror,
‘inspecting’ his facial features and
what he sees.
The photo itself isn’t complex which
forces the audience to focus on the
man and how he perceives himself
to look in the mirror. The title
suggests that the man is searching
for his identity, and the distortion he
sees and what the audience sees
suggests that he is confused, and
could also suggest low self esteem.
I interpret this photo as
society forcing us to look
at ourselves as society’s
expectation in terms of
beauty is constantly
shoved down our throats
and forced upon us,
causing us as the public
to frown upon our facial
features that sometimes
aren’t accepted, hence
the elderly woman’s
unhappy face.

3. z
PAUL
APAL’KIN Paul Apal’kin is a Ukraine-
based photographer that
specialises within the
classical genre and also
portraits. He was born in
1987 and started doing
photography from 2010, and
became a freelance
photographer in 2014. He
has won multiple awards
and has his own exhibition
in Ukraine.
Examples of his work:

4. z
‘Infinite’ is a photograph of a girl looking
away from a small mirror that she holds in
her hands. I think that looking away from the
mirror and closed eyes signifies insecurity
and lack of confidence. I think that in this
photo Apal’kin tries to explore the concept of
self image and self confidence. The texture of
the mirror and the girl herself are contrasted,
as the girl is almost blurred out, while the
mirror is sharp and crystal clear. To me, the
sharpness of the mirror could suggest that it’s
something that you can’t miss or run away
from , or the sharpness could even signify the
damage that the mirror causes whenever the
girl looks into the mirror, the damage being a
blow to her self esteem each time she looks
at it, and may not be able to bear looking at
herself hence the closed eyes.

5. z
’Invasion (aka broken mirror)’
Features a broken, jagged mirror being
held over a girls face, with her eyes filling
the mirror.
The mirror could represent a second
identity, or the ‘real’ identity suggesting
that she is ‘broken’ despite the fact that
her body and face is positioned in the
style of a typical portrait which explores
the concept of looking perfect, but
feeling/being the exact opposite. This
could also be suggested by the bottom of
the photo being really bright (like the
white shirt) and becomes darker as a
gradient by the top of the photo which
could have connotations of ‘polar
opposites’. You could say that the hands
are forcing the ‘broken’ element to come
through.

6. z
Juno calypso
Juno is a London
based artist known for
her usually dark,
unique self portraits
like ‘The honeymoon
suite’. While I don’t
want to recreate her
photos I do want to
take the use of the
colour pink and style
in her photos and use
them in mine.