Nikki s. Lee’s photographs of herself playing different roles put a spotlight on the fluidity with which people switch identities throughout their lives and even throughout each day. In fact, I think many people do this maybe even to a greater degree than she does, although without so much of the overt physical transformation that draws so much attention to what she is doing and makes it more open. Of course, she would also need to do this for the artistic appeal of her photographs. One question that she raises is who does an identity belong to if it is something that someone can pick up, assume, leave behind at will. Are these false identities that a person is pretending to be, or imitating, or are they as real as anything else. Or are any roles just totally honest and natural, to put it another way.
Below: Nikki S. Lee as an old woman, a punk, and a b-girl





I tend to feel that there are a lot of things, identity I tend to think few people create their own identity, most of the time we are playing pre-made roles, and in the cases where something new does happen, then although it may be a triumph of that individual who does it, their creation is now accessible and imitatable to anyone who comes across it, identities can be seen as part of culture rather than something that an individual possesses.

Is there such a thing as “being yourself” or is 90% of it just a string of influences and borrowed actions and words that nobody really owns or is a part of, but just are there once they are born through a combination of people’s interactions?

~She is one person and hundreds of people, a multitude of masks, we all have many faces, a sea of masks. How can you spot the real one amongst so many? They are reflected in mirrors. They divide and copy like shells. They morph. They are chameleons. They are shape-shifters.