bathtub mermaid

I’ve been thinking a lot of self-portraits as of late.

Nemesister. 2009.

Despite their prevalence within my body of work, I am not particularly fond of them. Being an insecure person, I have a hard time grappling with the role in front of the lens. It seems when shroud in artifice I feel a fraud, and when they take on an auto-biographical stance; I feel far too vulnerable. Perhaps that vulnerability is on account of the intrinsic intensity when author becomes object and bares all to see.

Loveletter - Filmstrip. 2010.

Jaques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst and philosophical theorist, believed the most fundamental stage of development was when one identified their own image in the mirror. Placing identity into a realm of superficiality, lending a tangibility- an external symbol-to a concept far more complex and encompassing: the ego. I suppose Lacan felt that in the mirror was where the culturally- perceived duality of soul and body connected.  I’ve always felt the self portrait to function on this level : a visual projection of identity – an exploration of the self whether fact or fiction.

The notion of artificial identity is a fascinating one. In the digital age of social networking, it seems as though a self-determined projection has become blurred with the “real” corporeal being. From Photoshop to flattering “Myspace angles”; it seems more and more the manipulated and constructed ego is replacing any notion of a “real” and unchanging self.

Ivory 2010

Historically, portraiture remained relatively subjective, as the sitter’s likeness was captured by a third party and thus, imbued with the artist’s  inherent biases and perception. However, with the rise and subsequent ease of consumer technology, the reproducible image has escalated to extremes never before anticipated. And suddenly, the photographer can become the subject simultaneously. Not that self-portraits are some novel concept, no, for centuries artists have been compelled to record their own image, determine the appearance of their own immortality. But, now it’s passed from savant to amateur, and everyone from children to the elderly are able to decide the person they present themselves to be.

To my knowledge, the first person to bridge the gap between self-portraiture and photography was Hannah

Hannah Maynard. Self-Portrait. 1893.

Maynard (1834-1918), a photographer who resided in BC and took astounding multiple exposures of herself.

The rise of post-modernism saw a concurrent rise in self portraiture in photography; the likes of Cindy Sherman and Duane Michals exploring the relationship between identity and appearance, by using their own bodies to explore projections and representations. Sherman takes on a variety of different characters within her body of work utilizing wigs and make-up to draw a connection between image and ego, and the superficial nature therein. She demonstrates that identity is not only dependent upon appearance, but that identity is as shallow and artificial as that.

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. 1980.

Francessca Woodman, on the other hand, created highly personal images, and went so far as to document her own demise, a series of haunting autobiographical self portraits that detail her fall into the depths of mental illness. At both ends of the spectrum, from fact to fiction, it seems that self-portraiture has become a fundamental way in which the artist comes to terms with their own ego.