Alba Zari’s book Fear of Mirrors explores the fragility of the gaze in a world saturated with images. The faces that appear seem to float between surface and depth, as if trying to hold on to something already slipping away. Each portrait questions the very possibility of self-recognition, now that the mirror has become a screen—ever-present, ever-watching. The book underscores that to see oneself is also to understand that one is being seen—by others, by social norms, by algorithms. Zari’s photographs illuminate this tension between visibility and control, where femininity is shaped by a set of imposed codes. The reproduction of WikiHow pages exposes the subtle violence of everyday injunctions, while the faces unravel and reassemble, refusing any fixed identity. The book ends with a synthetic, AI-generated figure, the ultimate mirror of a smooth and unattainable ideal, revealing what we risk losing: opacity, vulnerability, and the living depth of the human.
Reference:
Jessica Ragazzini « BOOK REVIEW: FEAR OF MIRRORS BY ALBA ZARI | XYZ BOOKS AND YOGURT EDITIONS », Musée Magazine, Vanguard of Photography culture, November 2025