Novel
I Am What You See
When no one can find their own face anymore, each person’s image begins to depend on other people’s gaze.
What remains of us when we can no longer see ourselves?
Imagine waking up and discovering that your face no longer exists in the mirror. The room is still reflected, light from the street still enters through the window, and cameras and screens still work. Only people have stopped appearing.
Eva has to live in this world. At first, she only wants to know what she looks like. But without a mirror or a photograph to check her own face, she starts depending on the words and eyes of those around her. A compliment can reassure her. A seemingly simple comment can stay with her for days.
Then comes the possibility of having someone draw her portrait. A drawing could give Eva back what no surface can show anymore. But a portrait is not a mirror: between her and her image lies another perception, another choice about what deserves to appear and what can be left out.
When she receives her image back, Eva no longer knows whether she is finally seeing herself or simply discovering how someone else sees her.
I Am What You See follows a search that begins with the disappearance of an image and reaches a more unsettling question: how much of what we believe we are truly comes from within us, and how much do we learn to recognize because other people’s gaze reflected it back to us?