We looked at primary artists who have influenced contemporary thinking about self portraiture and some contemporary practitioners who build on these ideas. We discussed the intentionality of the work and discussed the appropriateness of self portraiture.
Key words to think about...
Performance – Embody – Self Portraiture – Selfie – Identity – Phototherapy – Stereotype – Role playClick on the image below to see the lecture slides:
This week's task: A ‘Self Portrait’ Portrait...
Building on the class discussions your task is to make your own self portrait. This brief can be interpreted as broadly as you like. Consider what point you would like to make and how best to perform that role. Experimentation is encouraged. What medium are you going to use? Colour or Black and White? What format are you going to use? What presentation may support the portrait? Do you need to make more than one image? Whose image is it? What are you trying to reveal in the image?
Task deadline: Post on G+ collaborative open space by Wednesday 8th March for class feedback
List of relevant Photographers/Artists and Bodies of work discussed:
Juno Calypso (2015) Honeymoon Suit
Claude Cahun (1912-1932) Self Portraits
Catherine Opie (1993/4) Self Portraits
Jo Spence (1979) Beyond the Family Album
Jo Spence (1981-82) Remodelling Photo History
Jo Spence (1982-1986) The Picture of Health
Frida Kahlo (1944) The Broken Column
Sam Taylor-Wood (2001) Self Portrait in a Single Breasted Suit with Hare
Elina Brotherus (2009-14) The Annunciation
Cindy Sherman (1977-80) Film Stills & (2008) Society Portraits #Untitled
Gillian Wearing (2003) Album
Hans Eijkelboom (1970’s) Family Portraits
Trish Morrissey (2001-04) Family Portraits
Nicki S Lee (1997-2001) Projects
Samuel Fosso (1970’s) Self Portraits
Shadi Ghadirian (2008-09) Self Portraits
Amalia Ulman: (2014) Excellences and perfections
Tracy Emin (1998) My Bed
Tim Soter (2001) Self-Portrait
Ben Eldin (2016) Self Portrait
Grayson Perry (2015) Who do we think we are?
For further reading...
Bright, S. (2010) Auto Focus. Thames & Hudson
Doy, G (2005) Picturing the self: Changing view of the subject in visual culture. I. B. Taurus
Hall, S. (1997) Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London Thousand Oaks, California: Sage in association with the Open University.
Miller, D. (2015) Photography in the Age of Snapchat. RAI
Olin, M. (2012) Touching Photographs. University of Chicago Press
Moorhouse, P. (2014) Cindy Sherman. Phadion Publishing
Smith, C. (2011) Enacting Others. Duke Press
Spence, J. (1986) Putting myself in the picture: A political personal and photographic autobiography. Camden Press.
(2010) Identity & Identification. Black Dog Publishing. London
(2016) Performing for the camera. Tate publishing
Further references and resources are on the end of the powerpoint slide presentation and will continue to be disseminated through @picbod and G+ community page.