Lately I have been having continuous musings about self-portraiture. This all started when my good photographer friend,
Leslie McDaniel, asked me to be a guest blogger for her a few weeks ago. I wrote any entry about the study of personality and how that ties into self-portraiture. I feel like this just barely touched the surface of the subject. You can view my blog entry
here. There are so many more things to consider, analyze, include, etc.!
Last week I was a guest teacher at Leslie's home-schooling class here in Bozeman. I expanded on the self-portrait concept to two middle schoolers and two high schoolers. I started with the basics: What is needed for a self portrait? Equipment? Techniques to focus on yourself, literally? I went over why artists create self portraits (to show their identity, to be on the other side of the camera, etc.). Eventually we went over why critiquing self portraits is tricky and what to consider when making your own self portrait. What makes you, you? We reviewed a slide show that I had put together of examples of self-portraits, mostly done by fellow photographers and some by famous artists. We analyzed what each of these portraits showed and it helped them get an idea for their assignment for this week - creating their own self portrait. This class was a blast and it helped me think about my own self-portraiture.
Self-portraiture has never been something I have focused on. My sister spent an hour learning about her camera when she first purchased it, and most of that was photographing herself. My friend
Bek (as mentioned in Leslie's blog) photographs herself naturally, as a common subject. I aim to work on my self-portraiture more as well as study the purposes of photographing oneself.
My favorite fact that I came across when researching s
elf-portraiture: While a mirror or a photograph can tell a person what he or she looks like, that physical image does not reflect the whole self.
My two favorite questions brought up by self-portraiture: Who do I want to become? How am I changing from day to day or year to year?
These are just the beginnings of my focus on self-portraiture. Now to get everyone else thinking - what makes you, you? What makes self-portraiture so significant?
This image was taken on World Wide Photo Walk Day back in July. I edited it and placed it on the background of my computer. One of the girls in the class I taught noticed it and commented that she loved it. This photo actually is a self-portrait (although the thought hadn't crossed my mind at the time) - my purple converse shoes are a significant part of me and my photography. I shoot every wedding in these shoes and the color is indicative of me.
It's baking season! All I want to do is bake but I have limited myself to one baking project per week. Maybe. We'll see how that goes. Here are molasses cookies from a few weeks back. I need help deciding which image form each set that I like best. 1 or 2? 3 or 4? Help! I have more images but I am not as satisfied with them. 
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