Am I?

Am I?
From the Lost Drawings Series by Peter Bogdanov
Graphite and ink on sketch paper (early 1990s, art school period)
Some questions don’t need punctuation to hit hard.
"Am I?"—two words. No context. No conclusion. Just the pause between identity and uncertainty.
In this early graphite and ink drawing, Peter Bogdanov turns the page into a mirror, distorting the human face just enough to let something deeper slip through. The figure’s expression is vacant, yet searching. The mouth is slack, the eyes uncentered, the head slightly skewed—like the subject is caught between thoughts or selves. It's not a portrait of someone—it’s a portrait of a question.
Created during his foundational years as an art student, “Am I?” reveals a young artist already exploring the fragile boundary between the physical and the psychological. The ink bleeds into the graphite in subtle places, adding tension to the shadows. It feels unfinished—but that’s the point. Identity, after all, is always under construction.
The drawing was among those lost in the 2024 hurricane that destroyed Bogdanov’s Florida archive. What survives is this high-resolution scan—a fragment of a moment when the artist wasn’t showing off skill, but letting uncertainty speak.
To collect “Am I?” is to accept the rawness of introspection. It’s not about who the figure is. It’s about that sliver of time when they weren’t sure.