I've always been a little ambivalent about self-portraits. On one hand I love to see other people's self portraits, on the other I have this little voice in the back of my head telling me that self-portraits are self-centered - 'look at me, look at me!' (how very Danish of me - more about janteloven and the Danish way of thinking right here ). About a year ago I stumbled upon a photo blog and instantly feel in love with Megan's self-portraits. I love how she uses herself as an object in her pictures.
In a blog world full of girls showing pictures of their perfect home, hair and bodies, it was nice to find a girl that cared more about the feel of her photo than whether or not her body was shot from the best possible angle -no pigeon-toed girl attitude there. I love that.
Needless to say, I got inspired and during the last 6 months I've been taking self portraits regularly. I've showed a few here on the blog and I'll probably continue to do so every once in a while. Though I'd like to think that I'll keep most of them to myself - for when I'm old and grey and in the need of a little laugh ;-)
Do you take self portraits?
Update: Thank you so much for your comments on this subject. It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one with those thoughts, and I'm happy to know that I've inspired some of you guys to start taking your own self portraits.
Here's how I take mine: I use a gorillapod and the self timer function on my old analog camera. I focus on the spot where I'll eventually sit/stand, cross my fingers for a somewhat clear image - and then I run like hell to be in the right spot at the right time :-)
Thanks for the link to Megan's photos. They are quite something!
ReplyDeleteI never take self-portraits, but maybe I should start and see how I feel about it. We tend to forget about ourselves....
Your kind of self portraits are beautiful and not self centered. The myspace/fb-kind-of-self-portraits where people show case themselves in a more flashy way is a totally other thing! Some how black/white also makes it more elegant...
ReplyDeleterarely, i had the same feeling of self-centred.
ReplyDeleteyou are a photographer (even though you changed your career plans), and so self-portraits as a study in photography or as art are perfectly fine, in fact interesting and beautiful. staged self-portraits in blogs about family life or cooking or crafting or whatever, are quite self-centered, in my opinion, although it's nice to see the face behind the words once in a while.
ReplyDeletehow do you take portraits of yourself? do you use a remote and a tripod?
now I'm very curious about self portraits, but I can't see Megan's site - it takes toooo long to load on my connection:(
ReplyDeleteThese are so wonderful. I think you are brave too. I do self-portraits once in a while, but I have yet to share on my blog...it's the shyness in me.
ReplyDeleteJeg elsker det "gamle" skær, der er over billederne. Du må tage mit portræt til hver en tid :)
ReplyDeleteyour self portraits are beautiful, thank you so much for your kind words. i'm more than happy to read that ive inspired anyone, let alone inspired you to create.
ReplyDeletewith love,
megan
I feel a bit the same about self portraits so hardly take them, but love the way you took these! beautiful!
ReplyDeletethese are so good, ida!
ReplyDeletei have the same ambivalence, but also think it's so interesting to see what a self-portrait says about oneself. i would like to be more courageous about it.
yesterday i took a self portrait inspired by you!
ReplyDeletei love your self-portraits! you are so pretty! i used to feel the same way about self-portraits, i don't really remember how i got over it, but i'm realizing now, that i take a lot of them hehe. love the photos you posted above : )
ReplyDeletei am ambivalent too.
ReplyDeletei feel the same way: they are so self-centered. yet i love watching the others ones.
but now, i also want to have images of time passing by, of the changes in me; not only wrinkles, but the inner changes too.
yours are very beautiful.
Funny, I just took one today.
ReplyDeleteI TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. You explain it very well.
ReplyDeleteI always have problems with self-portraits. I've seen so much of myself that it's hard to capture it all in one frame, so I'm forced to edit which in turn causes me to not recognize myself in the portrait anymore. I think that's why I'm shy about posting self-portraits. I know I'm showing only one aspect of myself, so I kind of want to scream: "No wait, there's more!" In fact, it might be that way with any familiar subject.
ReplyDeletep.s. I like your blog!