The idea behind the exercise is that we draw on Barthes’ (2010) notion of the intersection of the awareness and points of view between photographer and subject in the making of a portrait:
The portrait-photograph is a closed field of forces. Four image-repertoires intersect here, oppose and distort each other. In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art.
I think that there is a useful insight here, in that there is a lot at play psychologically in an ostensibly simple act: taking a picture of someone. At the heart of it is the distinction that exists in every human being between the presentation of the self and the inner awareness / consciousness of the self. And since both photographer and sitter are subject to this distinction, there are no fewer than four sets of awareness present during any portrait session involving two people.
I spent quite some time thinking through the implications of Barthes’ view and how it might be represented photographically. I suspected that it would be difficult to accomplish because few of us have sufficient critical distance from our own thought processes and emotional awareness to allow us to make four distinctly different portraits of the same subject or of ourselves. My suspicions seemed to be borne out when I looked at the learning logs of former (not current!) SAO students—there was usually a sameness across the images they displayed and, in some cases, no images at all were offered. I did not see much insight and I suspect it was because no one really knew what to do conceptually with the exercise.
As I said, I think there is indeed something valid in Barthes’ insight and that it is important to keep in mind the four perspectives that are operating during the act of portrait-making. Instead of offering up a set of similar images—or worse, no images at all—I have created four pictures that I hope capture something of the dynamics between photographer and subject, and between each individual and themselves (internal/external) by offering four viewpoints of one portrait session. I have drawn again on the over-the-shoulder perspective that I used for a self-portrait in Context and Narrative and am drawing on again for A3 of SAO.
Reference
Barthes, R. (2010) Camera lucida: reflections on photography. (Pbk. ed) New York: Hill and Wang.
The Self and the Other 