The Self Portrait
You may or may not know that I take a lot of self portraits. It's not something that I share much. I find it to be a rather personal expression. There are several reasons that I enjoy this type of portraiture. It is a great way for me to test ideas for styling or lighting scenarios without feeling like I am wasting anyones time. If I can pull off an idea by myself, it should be reasonable to think I can replicate it with anyone. It also allows me the opportunity to shoot any day that I want, which really just means I get to shoot more. I don't always have clients, and I am still a little shy about asking models to work with me, so using myself as a subject is a simple answer. As you can imagine there are technical aspects of shooting self portraits that can be challenging. Some days it is extremely frustrating when not a single image is in focus. There is no way to really know until I stop, get out of the set and look at the camera. It can take some time to get it right.
The reason I am telling you all this is so I can share an accomplishment. I am very happy to say that another one of my self portrait pieces was accepted into Vogue Italia this morning.
This is only my second piece that they have accepted out of many submissions. Having an image selected by Vogue Italia is extremely gratifying because it is not a simple task. I have sent in a lot of work I considered to be very strong, and I will say there are one or two times I was surprised an image was denied.
It feels pretty dang good to have a self portrait accepted. Not only is it my face, but it was my photograph, my vision, my edit. Not to say that working solo is any more important than an image that was a collaborative effort, but it does feel different.
I may start posting some self portrait work on my blog from time to time. Some of it does end up turning out ok.... sometimes even worthy of Vogue Italia :)
~Christine