tonepainter - Hobbyist, General Artist | DeviantArt (original) (raw)

I’m fascinated by the inherent paradox/ contradiction of self portraits.

This is how we see ourselves at the precise moment we’re in a blind spot, with no access to the viewfinder.

So self portraits are really all about anticipation, expectation, and…history.

The baggage we carry competes with the ideal we seek, or the “reality” we resign ourselves to.

Another way of looking at it/us/ourselves: what is it about ourselves we need to freeze to see? What have we so well hidden that we need to steal light in order to reveal?

How much do we really reveal, and how much do we hide?

Finally: unless we model all the time, we mostly know our mirror selves. That face we shave or apply make-up to. A self portrait wants to show us that other face as if in real time. Photos taken by others won’t do; they are pictures of what others have seen, but not of what we have/could/desire to see ourselves.

A self portrait is a time machine. When we see our own self portrait, we travel back in time to the moment the picture was taken, but instead of looking at the camera from the pose, we’re looking at our posed selves through the viewfinder.

A self portrait is a lie.

A lie that tells the truth?