The aim of this paper is to implement the self-imaging phenomenon by utilizing an incoherent to coherent conversion in a non-holographic approach. This is materialized by using a photorefractive BSO crystal to encode as modulation of birefringence an incoherently projected Ronchi grating that will be coherently read out by collimated laser light which is outside of the spectral sensitivity range of the crystal. The transmitted output through the analyzer is written in terms of: a component of the linear polarized part of the readout wavefront exiting the crystal, and a component of the elliptically polarized part of it. In this way, the incoherent input is converted in a coherent output that repeats itself under free propagation. By rotating the analyzer the contrast of the replicated grating is controlled. Experimental results are presented and possible applications are discussed.