There was a time when everyone on Facebook was talking about their profile picture. Which one you picked, which one made you look best. The face had become a currency. You showed it just to exist on the network.

I set out to do the exact opposite. A series of anti-profile pictures. Portraits where the person covers their face with an everyday object. The very thing the platform wanted to see, hidden.

These aren't photos to hang on a wall. They are meant to be used. For anyone to put as their profile picture. A profile picture that refuses to be a profile picture, embedded right inside the system, playing by its rules.

This was in 2011. We still understood nothing about privacy. We were giving away our data and our faces without a second thought, happily. I didn't have the full argument back then, but I was starting to feel that something was off. Something we didn't quite understand and that I didn't want to be a part of.

That’s why covering your face says more today than it did back then. The face stopped being just a photo. It’s biometric data, it’s facial recognition, it’s the most valuable thing you hand over for free. These photos were hiding that before we even knew it needed to be hidden.

Covering up with an everyday object also says something else. That you don't need to show your face to be present. That the object you have within reach speaks just as much as your best angle. That beneath the filter and the pose, we are all pretty interchangeable.

The profile picture asks you to perform your face. The anti-portrait lets you just be without performing. You occupy the space without feeding it.

Perhaps covering up is the most honest portrait. Especially now, when showing your face is no longer free