Knowing, © Christy Marie Photographie 2008
"That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they've been all along." ~Madeleine L'Engle
In the last several weeks I've stumbled on people that are struggling to understand both self portraiture as a genre and my creation of self portraits. I felt it might be helpful to explain why I feel it's an important genre and why I feel so drawn to creating my own.
The earliest known self portrait might just have been created by Bak, the sculptor for Egyptian PharoahAkhenaten, near 1365 BC. Bak carved a representation of himself with his wife.
History is filled with artists that used self portraiture as a tool for exploring concepts, techniques, self expression, and discovery in various mediums. Kahlo, Dürer, Rembrandt, and Rubens all painted self portraits. Sherman and Goldin shot theirs. Even Ansel Adams, almost synonymous with light filled landscape photography, took them.
Self portraiture allows me to discover, consider, celebrate, and share the many facets of me... hopes, dreams, thoughts, routines, emotions, and questions. Each time I take a self portrait, I am reaquainting myself with a part of me.
I have not always recognized myself in my life, nor allowed myself the time to stop, breathe, and get reaquainted. The self portraits I take remind me of who I am, who I intend to become, allow me to reflect on the journey I am on, get in touch with my emotions, thoughts and fears in the moment, and exercise my eye and my skill as a photographer.
My self portraits are not meant to be snapshots. Nor are they meant to be exact replicas of my physical self. They are representations of me---my soul---shy and thoughtful; happy and sad; knowing and unknowing; content yet yearning. Me. The me I see; the me I honor; the me that has been here all along, waiting to become clear.
For more information on self portraiture:
The Exploration of Self: What Artists Find When They Look in the Mirror by Jeanne Ivy
Fantastic books on the subject:
Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello
SELF PORTRAIT Renaissance to Contemporary by Anthony Bond and Joanna Woodall
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