Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait is a project by Miriam Yammad, ongoing since 2008. In this work, the artist photographs people based on their physiognomic likeness to herself. Throughout the images, we recognise shared qualities and contrasts alike. The work is charged with Yammad’s connective instinct and a desire to relate—however fleetingly—rather than identify.

Self-Portrait is an unassuming yet complex project by Miriam Yammad, ongoing since 2008 and published by 5b in book form for the first time. In this work, the artist photographs people based on their physiognomic likeness to herself. Throughout the images, we recognise shared qualities and contrasts alike. By employing various ubiquitous technologies – Polaroid cameras, iPhones, filters – Yammad imbues in the work a subtle sense of the uncanny, each portrait set oddly out of time. Formally modest and playful in its own way, the series is nevertheless bound by a rigorous conceptual framework: Yammad herself is never photographed. As simple as it is provocative, the work is charged with Yammad’s connective instinct and a desire to relate – however fleetingly – rather than identify. The publication features an accompanying text by Miriam Stoney, and will be launched with a two-person exhibition featuring both artists at 20 Albert Road, Glasgow (open 31 May—29 June, 2025).