“Girl from M*” is a series, built around one portrait. The single photograph is repeated and merged with book: “Children” by Sebastiao Salgado. The identities that emerge in this process oscillate between real and surreal. A nostalgic representation of adolescence and childhood; of true and of fabricated; of belonging to a specific country and of borderless; interweave and blur.
The project addresses how much of the portrayed is revealed to both the photographer and the viewer. It questions how to represent complex individual histories, sense of self and belonging. And if it is possible at all.
The title of series comes from the 60’s song “Girl from Ipanema” (by Astrud Gilberto, Joao Gilberto & Stan Getz).

Aleksandra Zawada lives and works in Edinburgh. She studied painting at the Edinburgh College of Art. While in the foundation year, she enrolled to a photobook making elective. Since then, she has continued to work in photography, establishing independent photographic body of work. She continues working in both mediums. Her work focuses on de construction and manipulation of relationships between photographs. It tests the limits of photographic language and its ability to represent truthfully.