Documenting Self

It’s been decades since I first embraced photography. What it meant during the beginning years was a way to look at the world, and separate myself from the painful parts. Watching parents disengage, a sister self-destruct and other siblings disperse into their own worlds from behind the camera, kept me apart from their struggles and gave me a layer of insulation.

Early assignments I chose were self-portraits. I believe it was an attempt at understanding feelings I had in response to what was happening around me. Portraits can be opportunities to discover the subject and in the case of ‘self' I used  the camera to articulate‘visually’ what was going on inside.

Another interesting aspect of documenting oneself is the sensation of being in two places simultaneously. You can’t see from behind the camera what perspective your frame looks like. In the instant of taking the photo, when you are the subject, you're in a space of ‘presenting’ for the camera, much like that of an actor, playing a part.

Some talents have made a name for themselves using charade in self-portraits - see the likes of Cindy Sherman. Whether her fame is wholly attributed to her elaborate sets and execution or a result of the timing of her craft, her work stands up to the ever-present popularity of self-capturing in the current ‘see me’ generation of Facebook super users.

Nowadays, the Droid makes it easy to mug for the camera. The resulting images all look the same to me.  No matter who is in the frame, these mobile snapshots bear the  “I’ll see this photo later on Facebook smile” and they almost always call attention to themselves via ‘tagging.’ It’s as if the photo feature of the phone is as important as its ability to communicate – ask any consumer shopping smart phone capability when a contract is up for renewal.

I’m returning to those early photography assignments – and working on a theme 'documenting self.’ It’s an attempt to see how appearance changes.

In this instance I want to chronicle a universal reality. The process of aging is something we all experience and photographing it is an ongoing effort, just like time.