Exercise 3.6—Objects

I expect that most people, when asked to make a portrait of themselves through objects, will most naturally turn to items that illustrate their interests, work or daily life, just as artist Tom Sachs has done (Magazine, 2017). Tracey Emin took this line of thinking even further (too far?) with her highly personal Everyone I

Exercise 3.5—Theatre of the Self

As I looked through the few images that were available to me from the family photographs in my possession, it occurred to me that many of us look for several things in albums: to remember, to show (to ourselves or to others), to look for meaning and clues to our own identity and significance. This

SAO Hangout—26 September 2021

Participants: AO, MR, KJ, LS AO presented portraits of strangers for A1—people in their gardens; almost a typology of the English garden? different engagement of gazes at the camera? typology invites comparison, so any difference stands out; will consider re-shooting image of himself MR’s essay for A4—photographic medium is essentially unreliable as a means of

Exercise 3.4—Family albums

In some respects, this exercise is a strange one because of the ways that digital technology has changed “the family album.” In the pre-digital era, the family album was often something precious because it represented a curated record of a family’s history. When having one’s picture taken was still relatively rare, any photograph of a

Exercise 3.3—Become someone else

It took me quite a while to get started on this exercise and I would be hard-pressed to say why that was. Whatever the reason, it started to roll fairly quickly once I had my idea in place. I stumbled across the Distorted Scotch Tape Portraits (s.d.) by U.S. photographer Wes Naman and found that

Notes on ‘Finding Our Self in the Past’

I had only a vague idea of ‘phototherapy,’ so it was helpful to spend some time looking at the Martin (1999) video and getting a sense not only of the concept but also how it might play out in practice. The broad idea is that a therapist will ask a client to review snapshots that

Exercise 3.2—Four image-repertoires

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,

Notes on work by Peter Mansell

Peter Mansell has a clear thesis statement for his Paralysis Unseen series “​You will see that paralysis is as much a cultural experience as it is a physiological one. “ As I read it, Mansell’s paralysis has “othered” him not only to people who do not have a disability, but perhaps also to himself. The photographs

Reflection point—selfie

While making my selfie I did indeed manipulate it to correct the white balance, adjust the exposure and open up the shadows. I did not add a filter because I don’t see the value in them and I already had in mind the look that I was after. I also used my (ageing) cellphone to

Exercise 3.1—Your selfie

I don’t have a particular problem with the idea of making a selfie. There are lots of reasons why one might choose to do so: to register a mood, time or place (yes, I was here!). They can, of course, be used for self-promotion or to create an idealised version of the self. I decided