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2007 means another 365 days around the sun, and my typical time to sign myself up for a few new things, due to the turn of the year, my holiday-time birthday, and a recurring case of the winter blahs. This year, one of these is a photo project I'd been thinking about for a while. The trouble is, the subject is mostly unwilling, and almost always, distinctly on purpose, behind the lens of the camera (especially if it's of the moving picture variety.)
Yeah, it's me.
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(See, I can totally handle the friendly Photo Booth glow. Thanks again, Mr. Jobs)
The Internet, and the blogosphere in particular, brims with human beings who, when faced with either a ton of subjects or none, point that lens right at their beautiful face, baby, and don't you forget it. And since I've been reading blogs for the past couple of years, I've gotten quite interested in self portraits - the whys and wherefores as well as the actual product- and have even taken the odd stab at them myself. So shortly after the first of the year, I joined a group on flickr called 365 Days. It's the place where you can be all you, all the time, posting 365 self-portraits every day for a year. What can I say? I needed another deadline I could blow posthaste.
I really think I'm just giving into the mob mentality though. My friend flickr turns up 201,922 photos tagged "self portrait" and 201, 365 that lose the space, tagged "selfportrait" . And don't even me started on...well, "me". There are 958,582 tagged with that two-letter center of the universe.
Folks who photograph themselves with timers and tripods, or in that time-honored triumvarate of self-mirror-camera can also find a home in several self-portrait groups within the community. This includes the Mirror Project group, an offshoot of the long-running website of the same name created by Heather Champ that restricts self-portraits to those taken in reflective surfaces.
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If you're looking for something a little less reflective, the "Self-Portrait Experience" group says no mirroring surfaces or tripods/timers allowed in any shots submitted to their pool. This self-portrait business is all very detailed, it seems.
Self-portraits are found way beyond flickr's virtual walls, quite possibly on your blogroll. One of my favorite self-portraitists is Amanda at VeryZen, who I ended up adding as a flickr contact too. She's lovely no matter who's taking the picture, but her 365 series is a story unto itself, and that's why I keep checking it out. I'm looking forward to finding more compelling subjects in the group.
Several Websites provide plenty of opportunities for visitors and contributors to get their self-portrait on - all day, in fact, if you don't have to work or eat. Self-Portrait Day is a project of Brooklyn-based blogger and creative photographer Mihow that aims to "function as a way for people to find new sites," as they click through portraits and profiles.
SelfPortrait Challenge is described as "a continuous artistic self-expressive art project community". Begun by Australian blogger Kathreen Ricketson, (who you can also find here at Whip Up, her craft blog, and here), as Self-Portrait Tuesday, the site offers themes and challenges in self-portraiture, and an opportunity for participants to discuss their work. The flickr stream is here.
I'm really looking forward to the challenges in the group (this week: represent one of the seven deadly sins in self-portraiture) and having some fun with it. And I know that some days, like today, I'll only want to show you my hands,
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and other days I'll really want to say hi.
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(If you have or know of a great self-portrait, post the link here!)
Photography and pets Contributing Editor Laurie White blogs here, and will be posting those 350-something (I'd guess) self-portraits here.
