Self Portraits

Me, eight days apart

Self portraits don't happen that often for me but in the past 8 days I've made two that strike me as decent. Sharing them here is not something I'm entirely comfortable with but in the spirit of sharing, I am posting them anyway. This isn't intended to be a self-serving, Clay-centric place so two pictures of me risks being misinterpreted as arrogance. Instead, I thought I'd simply share two self-portraits that I think work. The fact that they are taken just over a week apart and in two very different parts of the world is what prompted me to share them at all.

I wish I could add something profound to say but I don't have any deep insights into the self-portrait other than it a long artistic tradition.

I don't shoot myself very often and when I do, there seems to be a reason. Whether it's a simple matter of being sleep-deprived and covered in mud in the middle of the New Jersey Pine Barrens or standing alone on the shores of Lake Taganyika, lifting the camera up backwards with both hands and making a shot of myself isn't a casual affair. One-handed is something else entirely. I do that all the time. Those aren't self-portraits. Two handed, symmetrical, deliberate, concentrated. Those are self-portraits. I am thinking about the audience, the composition, the whole image. I chimp until I get a few I might like. On the bottom camouflage image I made myself blind with the flash. I must have made twenty-five shots to get something worth editing. On the upper image, it was about the same but without the flash. The upper one was more about exposure as the sun was setting directly behind my head.

So that's that. Forgive the indulgence. Give it a try on your end. Self-portraits are harder than they seem.

Make pictures of yourself.