Self Portrait

Categories:
-direct: standard portrait
-the other: another person closely tied to you (family member, boyfriend, bff, etc.)
-parts of a whole: body part
-reflection
-photographer not in the photo: aka shadow
-fantasy
-nude

I was really excited for this assignment because I could shoot the photos all on my own time and not have to worry about arranging photo adventures with friends and scheduling trips far from my apartment. I was also determined to try as many of the categories as possible and for this reason, purposefully started the assignment rather early. In shooting for this assignment, I faced difficulties creating a modest nude photo. I definitely felt limited to my bedroom, but at least I don’t have a roommate. That would’ve been super awk. I did, however, warn my apartment roommates, and did lock my door. I think I somewhat achieved what I was hoping for while photographing my back. Still, I wish I had gone outside for better lighting. Another fun category was fantasy. The story behind that is that my mom has this great clown outfit from the 80’s and she brought it up for me in case I wanted to wear it for Halloween. For this assignment, I figured I could make produce some pretty artsy photos with the clown outfit and makeup. I didn’t expect them to turn out so creepy…. Sorry bout that. But really, they are creepy. Overall, I enjoyed shooting this assignment, but I feel pretty personal about the photos. Even showing some of the clown shots to friends, I felt vulnerable and wondered, “how will this change their perception of me?”

Self portraits are scary.
Clown self portraits are creepy.

Top Shots

A lot of people seem really intrigued by the whole clown process so here are my favorite outtakes (below). Yes I did take some liberty within photoshop with these images, but it was allowed for the assignment. Plus, its hard to capture the right photo--shutter speed, aperture, focus, ISO--from the other side of the camera.