Shooting oneself qualifies as suicide no? Well not when you use a camera. Here is a collection of photographer self-portraits to help us discover the man or woman behind the lens.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled, No 199 ,1989© Courtesy of the artist and Metro Picture Gallery Victoria & Albert (V&A) via http://www.artfund.org
Probably, the best known camera self portraitist is Cindy Sherman; the woman we’ve seen in a thousand and one guises and then some. The chameleoness as I like to call her, has reinvented herself over and over but what about the other well known photographers who seldom place themselves in front of a camera lens? What do they look like? I think it’s interesting to find out how, for example, Willy Ronis or Diane Arbus looked.
Willy Ronis, Self-Portrait, 1951 via christies.com
Willy Ronis liked to keep both hands occupied…
Diane Arbus Double Self-Portrait With Infant Daughter, Doon, 1945 via faculty.lacitycollege.edu
Diane Arbus brought her daughter into the picture.
Below is a collection of a few self-portraits I came across for our collective enjoyment. Which one’s your favourite? I think mine’s the Kertesz one although Helmut Newton’s which includes a model and his wife June is also pretty cool.
Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait, 1975 via mapplethorpe.org
Mapplethorpe shot lots of full frontal nudes but when it came to himself he preferred his hand to his other body parts…
Helmut Newton, Self-Portrait with Wife & Model, Paris, 1981 via kennethpaullesko.com
I think Helmut is making a point to let us know that June was there all along keeping an eye on him.
Gisèle Freund: Self portrait with camera, Mexico City, 1950 via mdf-berlin.de
In the words of Lady Gaga: “Show me some teeth”
Lucien Hervé, Self Portrait, 1938 via historyofourworld.wordpress.com
Doesn’t he just look like he’s holding an iPhone?
André Kertész, Self-Portrait, Paris, 1927 via laboiteverte.fr
My favourite without a shadow of a doubt (excuse the pun).
Edward Steichen, self portrait with a studio camera, 1917 via laboiteverte.fr
He’s sexy and he knows it. Enough said.
Richard Avedon, self-portrait, Provo, Utah, 1980 © 2008 THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION via laboiteverte.fr
It’s all about the hair for Richard it seems!
Have you ever shot a self portrait? What does it look like? Why not post a link to it underneath here as a comment? I’m thinking of putting together a collection of lomographer self portraits and then writing about them. Help me out. Post a link. Thanks!
10 comments
phoenix1206
I'd be the first, lol
http://www.lomograph(…)os/15116394
laurasulilly
http://www.lomograph(…)os/15092131
This is mine- it's a Polaroid shot which I lifted and put on watercolour paper. I'm planning to do a Polaroid self-portrait project and this is my first shot :)
bloomchen
and that´s mine: http://www.lomograph(…)os/14918601
adi_totp
Here's mine! http://www.lomograph(…)os/15046321
adi_totp
http://www.lomograph(…)os/14757992
adi_totp
http://www.lomograph(…)os/14435769
adi_totp
http://www.lomograph(…)os/13519888
adi_totp
with La Sardina!
http://www.lomograph(…)os/13763194
http://www.lomograph(…)os/13637796
adi_totp
http://www.lomograph(…)os/13324292
walzjohn