Reflections: An introspective journey exploring identity

From a young age, I’ve had an awareness of and connection to the ways I see my family members reflected in myself. I have been fortunate to know and spend time with my parents, all of my grandparents, and some of my great-grandparents, as well as a host of extended family members. I credit my relationships and time spent with them in how I’ve interpreted my own identity and sense of self. My grandparents instilled in me a value and pride in knowing who and where I come from and they facilitated the connections I have with my family as a broader community.

My inspiration for this project came from looking at my family’s collections of still photographs and home videos. I wanted to create portraits of myself reflecting as each of my parents, grandparents, and my maternal line of great-grandmothers. I chose to cut, color, and style my hair accordingly so that I would embody each individual I would be reflecting in a way that truly transformed me throughout my project journey. I had to live with each style and learn how to best work with my hair to achieve the look for each reflection portrait. This process of changing and cutting my hair proved to be far more inspirational and transcendental than I could have ever imagined.

While navigating my project, I ventured out from the mainline of my original idea and created some additional portraits which reflect other parts of me and my personality. These portraits emphasize a connection to the imaginative and creative part of myself and represent an allegorical narrative of sorts. I feel very pleased with the collection of images I have created to document my journey as I’ve explored my identity.

©2023 Mary Jillian Hamrick Luther, all rights reserved.