Ivan ⠀Klem

IDENTITAS

Identitas, in latin set of traits or characteristics of a person that allows to differentiate from others, also the condition of being oneself.

What defines identity? Is it possible just by looking at an individual know who he is or to what group belongs, if he/she belongs to one? A portrait explains the character, the subject, but stripped of material references, or reduced them to a minimum,  is it possible to venture who really is? Aspects such as race, sex, or age can be apparently targeted in a photograph, but the profession or nationality or religion does it translate into an image? What about the profile, does it bring different information?This work is part of an extensive series of portraits, where from an almost forensic perspective, the profiles of differentwomen, stripped out of context, are presented, challenging the viewer to be part of a game show, where we really can imagine what we want, because, at the end, an individual, once stripped of references, maintains its own identity, but very little collective identity. How much of someone today is the result of himself and how much is the result of a burden imposed by where you are born or live.

Over the past couple of years, more than one hundred women have participated in this portraiture and nude project, they all have come to the living room of the author, to the same wall, showing one profile, and therefore not interacting directly with the camera, not talking to the photographer, being just themselves.

In a classic portrait, the outcome is the result ofan interaction between the photographer and the subject, the portrait documents a performance, documents a pas de deux, the project Identitas however documents a solo show. The photographer is not there.

Being nude, and not wearing anything that relates to their social lifes, status, activities, we can not imagine who they are, what role do they play in society, however easily realizing their uniqueness.