Week 10- The Self in Society

The self portrait is done for self expression.  Self portraiture has been done in various forms and explains who the person is or is false like Cindy Sherman explains, her self portraits don't tell who she is.  Self Exploration can be a smart way to find one self.  There are many ways to do self portraiture, not just pointing a camera at oneself but doing various things to make the picture tell who you are.

Anne Arden Mcdonald is a very famous fine art photographer who for 15 years worked on self portraits of herself.  She works in black and white and plays with space and texture.  Her work very beautiful and has been said to be like Francesca Woodman's work but it isn't in any sense.  This work has upbeat meaning, she has reasonings for every photograph she takes of herself and it all makes sense.

Then there is Robert Mapplethorpe who has done many self portraits that are very revealing.  Mapplethorpe is a gay male who took leaps that at the time and still, no artists dare to take.  He is a genius because of this and the work is beautiful at the same time.  Most people can't even look at his intimate fisting images but they speak louder then anyone could say.  

Then there is Chuck Close who is a very famous photographer and artist of our times.  The photograph on the wall is a self portrait that he did by mixing the medias of photography and painting.  He is known for his close up head shots of various people.  He isn't one of my favorite photographers but I do respect him for what he has done and how many people have tried to copy his style but have failed.

Then there are the infamous Myspace and Facebook self portraits.  These are done by everyone who has a myspace/facebook page.  These can either be done in an everyday boring way like the one up top where everyone has a myspace photo of themselves in a mirror, or be done in a more artistic way like the one below.  Self portraits are done in various ways, but guessing what we learn about the person is what makes self portraiture valuable to the artistic eye.