The human portrait expresses the “being of a kind” in existence.
What feeling arises in us when confronted with the presence of an individual or a portrait as a work of art helps us create an immediate understanding of the other. The reflection of this understanding in the viewer’s gaze shapes their identity and subjectivity. Thus, human individuality is formed in the shadow of social identity and their relationship with the surrounding world.
In today’s world, media has connected different human groups in new ways. This connection inevitably carries consequences, one of which is homogenization and uniformity; various cosmetic procedures, filters, and beauty trends place people in a situation where they want to fit their image into predefined molds. These molds narrow the range of human influence on their surrounding world. Humans now live under the illusion of influence, and their interaction with the world around them becomes blind and predetermined.
It is in these circumstances that perhaps if artists create works to break the visual expectations of viewers or to suspend meaning through ambiguity and confront the audience with “presence,” the portrait can become a threshold between seeing and being seen—forming a constant back-and-forth between the viewer and the artwork, inviting us into a prolonged silence. These images represent the diversity of lived experience, genetics, environmental variety, and more in a crisis-ridden region like Iran.
We seek to discover gazes, unique facial features, and the trace of existence on faces.
Maryam Roshanfekr / Shaghayegh Saeedi
Spring 1404 (2025)