I’ve shot quite a few new self portraits in this project over the last month. This image was impromptu and spontaneous- I often wear my gym clothes to work with the intention that I’ll do something sporty during the day,- this sometimes does happen and sometimes doesn’t. None the less they’re comfy so I don’t really mind. Bryan shot this against our grey studio wall, water-bottle-fake-sweat for effects. I particularly like this lighting style at the moment, I suppose it is naturally very complimentary and highlights form in the best possible way. Proud to say that apart from color grading I didn’t retouch the image at all. Great color, fun and sporty me…
Half way through a self initiated project, the idea is to shoot a self portrait every week day for two weeks (or at least thats the plan for right now). It has already been both educational and compelling in ways I find surprising and expected.
Screen grab from my working folder of day 1 & 2.
Each day I must come up with an idea which I can shoot in my own studio with the help of a friend as my “button-presser”. The resulting ideas, images and experience have been insightful: to feel what it is like to be the subject of my camera with the demands I outlay on my models and how it feels to my body, the comparison of the images side by side and also how some ideas have been more intuitive while others are based on approaches to shoots I may have had in the past with a distinctly more commercial beauty aesthetic tied to them.
Screen grabs from shoot days 3, 4 & 5. These come from my working folder and the images still appear in their raw state.
I think that the series will reflect the way I see myself in different contexts (the Professional, the Wacky Creative, the Woman, The Conceptualizer etc) as well as the way I’ve experienced societies take on women as the “sexy sex” and what I’ve learned about how my female subjects often feel about their own body identity. Somehow all these things are apparent to me in these five very different sets of images so far.
The demands on the body to pose and my feelings of self awareness are also heightened.
The questions I have about how much to effect or change the images in order to present the final “polished” versions remains unanswered.
