Seeing the Self

Selfportraits are as old as art itself. The advent of photography opened up new opportunities for artists to capture the essence of themselves. Given my current body of work it may come as a surprise that I wasn't always comfortable being in front of the camera. I recall in particular going to Brazil through a high school student travel program the summer before my senior year and actually avoiding being in pictures, opting instead to be the man behind the camera. Perhaps it was in the aftermath of that trip, flipping through my pictures that I realized that I had nothing to fear being on both sides of the lens. One of the reasons I love selfportraiture is the reward of the unique challenge taking an interesting picture of yourself presents. To me, each photo is like a trophy, a symbol of progress whether it denotes a triumph or a failure I look at each of my self portraits as more than a photo of what I was wearing or where I was, but also the acknowledgement that I did something and I am a better person for it (at least that's the goal), a little silent lesson each day. Sometimes that lesson is as simple as don't wear that shirt with that tie or don't forget your equipment at an on location photo shoot. I also love seeing how others interpret the genre. Lee Friedlander is one of the masters famous for his black and white selfportraits. There was a time in my photo life that I used an instant camera with a simple 10 second timer and a tripod to take my pictures. After switching over to my digital setup with an interval timer, I feel spoiled with the ease I can capture selfportraits and make minor adjustments. Knowing how difficult it is to meter and expose and focus digitally makes me appreciate the work of people like Friedlander and Cindy Sherman even more. I would love to try my hand at taking some analog selfportraits someday. I chose a few of my favorite selfportraits of Friedlander to share. He has a very strong sense of composition in all of his selfportraits, nothing is within the frame unintentionally. Mirrors and shadows seem to be a common theme of his and I like how he often incorporates layers and plays with our perceptions of depth in the frame. I've always liked the anonymity of a faceless selfportrait. Many of his photographs would still be compelling pictures without his figure in them, which I think is both impressive and fantastic. I am continually inspired by his work.