Inconnu de moi-même: la ricerca fotografica dell’identità a partire da Paul Valéry

In the Quatrain on Photography (1924) Paul Valéry reflects on ambiguity of the photographic portrait and on its power to determine subjectivity. This paper examines how the photographic portrait can define the self: it shows the situation of otherness that every autobiographical narration produces. Valéry’s reflection is useful to understand how photography can show the gap among image, word and reality between gaze and self-representation.