Photobook A Young Man is also autobiography, but the work as a whole is more than a personal documentary: it’s an exploration of a depressed person in a modern world, loaning visual elements from celebrity culture and mainstream media, and understanding how these things form the idea of self and especially masculinity.
A Young Man is a collection of their self-portraits from 10 year span, from 15 years old to 25 years old. Saarnia is questioning the beauty standards of our time and his own relation to them as a young man.