I promised myself that in 2013, I would dedicate more of my time to my personal work, and blogging more freely! This has actually been quite enlightening because it's helping me re discover myself as an artist not just a photographer.
I did however wake up at 4am and couldn't stop thinking about what I was going to write in the post though, so maybe blogging is actually going to result in insomnia for me....!
What started the thought process for this blog was that I read an article a couple of days ago by Sarah Wilkerson - 'Tips and advice for family self portraits' which was a refreshing perspective from a photographer who is also a Mum. It all felt quite familiar for me, where, as the photographer of the family you have to make a real effort to be in front of the camera, otherwise you are just this invisible presence behind the lens, and as much as you want to be in the photos, your children will want you to be too!
Although, making sure you make an appearance in some family photos is slightly different to going it alone! There is a certain awkwardness about self portraiture, it takes a lot of courage to pick up your camera and put any embarrassment aside! Some people may find it narcissistic whereas others see it as self discovery and expression. I personally think that anyone who takes photos of themselves has a healthy 'self love' because if you think about it, how many of us look in the mirror each day and we're all familiar with that uncomfortable pose where you hold your camera or phone out in front of you taking about 20 shots to get a decent one! Let's face it, we all like to look good in photos, the bad ones just seem to bring back horrible memories or uncomfortable feelings, but I think the important thing is to feel something, anything, that takes you back to that moment.
I'm quite tempted to take up a 365 project, where you take a photo each day of the year, either of anything that represents that day or a self portrait, just to name one of them I've recently seen is by Anna hardy . Personally I think taking 365 self portraits may be slightly out of my comfort zone, but then it's always good to stretch outside your limits! The self portraits I have taken in the past aren't always a full on portrait, they may be a shadow or just a body part so there is no set formula for a self portrait!
I think the period of my life so far where I've taken the most self portraits has got to be when I was pregnant with our little girl Emilie, although my face didn't feature in a lot of them, but I am so glad I documented that time because even after 10 months I forget how big I was or how I felt! Now I take endless photos of her, but sometimes I want to be in them too, to remember us together, how we both were!
I can't imagine how sad I'd feel if I didn't have photos to look back on, even if I think I look bad in the photos now, there will be a time when I'll look back at them and think, 'what on earth was I complaining about'!
So I think we should all make a conscious effort to think outside the box, look at life around us and put that fear aside and learn to love the camera and ourselves! Who cares if our family and friends laugh at us, we need pictures!
xxx
