Self Portraiture

Fellow Philadelphia photog and Flickrite Laura Kicey has written an article on self-portraiture on the photo website Utata.org. I've been looking at her photographs for many months now and I've had the pleasure of going out on shoots with her around Philadelphia twice now I think. She recently got a new camera, the Canon Rebel XT and I expect big things. She took the photo on the right with this new camera and although it is not a self-portrait, it is one of my favorite shots from her collection and indicative to the inquisitive nature of her photography.

She's taken self-portraiture to woderful highs in the months I've seen her expose her inner self to us on the internets. Tons of experimentation, lots of more traditional shots and abstractions. I'd say more often than not, the shots are incredible, and not just because she's got an alluring gaze; they're simply just great shots. But why does she take so many self-potraits? I think she boils it down well here:

If you have a camera, the first person available to photograph is most obviously yourself. Whether it is a narcissistic impulse, or a convenience, using the self as subject allows us the most freedom we can take with a model. We are completely aware of our own intentions. It also offers the most control we can exert over our own self-image.
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I have always felt that everything we make is, in a sense, a self-portrait. Our photographs are a reflection of our personal vision; using our own face is just doing so in the most literal sense. My camera acts as a confidante.

I used to snap shots at arms length all the time. Wherever I went with my mini digicam, the U10, I'd be taking shots of my mug. Alone. With an arm draped around a friend. Whatever. However, I've never really been comfortable with other people taking my photo. I guess I just like being on the other side of the lens. But since I've had this bell's palsy, I've been even more reluctant to be in front of a lens. I dunno what it's gonna take for me to get over it. Maybe I'm just going to have to go gung ho and take on a self-portraiture series to just get over it.

It was fun and educational to read her thoughts. You learn something more about a person when you see them in a medium different than you're used to seeing them in. I'm used to seeing her feelings and thoughts poured out through photography, to see her thoughts and feelings through her writing was different and I like it. I hope to read more.

Some of my favorite self-portraits by Laura here, here, here and here. Check out more self-portraits from her me set and her entire collection starting here.