9/9-Idea-Self Portrait

Idea: Self-Portrait

Every image he sees, every photograph he takes, becomes in a sense a self-portrait. The portrait is made more meaningful by intimacy - an intimacy shared not only by the photographer with his subject but by the audience. - Dorothea Lange

I've been actively researching to figure out exactly what I want to do. Im leaning towards self-portraiture in my ongoing exploration of identity.

I think self-portraits are very difficult. I’ve always seen mine as straightforward, very stripped down, hair pulled back. No shirt. Whatever light happened to be available. I’d want it to be very graphic – about darkness and light. No one else should be there, but I’m scared to do it by myself. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. The whole idea of a self-portrait is strange. I’m so strongly linked to how I see through the camera that to get to the other side of it would be difficult. It would be as if I were taking a photograph in the dark. - Annie Leibovitz

I came across an artist named Shadi Yousefian. Her work really spoke to me. I think it was because the images were reconstructions of her self-portrait, using film pieces. She works directly onto the film and leaves her direct mark. She doesn't try to enhance her work with photoshop.

I was thinking about doing my pieces with film. I really like square formats so I was going to pull my medium format out of the drawer. I like the fact that you can directly manipulate the negative and rescan it. I wouldnt want to digitally manipulate it though, maybe just for unwanted dust or color correction. I actually like printing and scanning full frame to have the borders. I think that the aesthetic helps my concept. Shadi was doing self portraits in response to being iranian and immigration issues. I think it may overlap a bit. Atleast with identity.


I started to do more personal work my sophomore year. I tried to push my boundaries. It isnt so much that I am concerned about exposing myself in the images literally. Its more personal. Digging deep and bringing out parts of me to put on display. Its a cleansing procedure.