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| Self-portrait 1: Focused. Magdalena, NM, Jan. 2012 |
Today I joined another photo blogging project,
{in the picture} (see the
Flickr group here), to focus specifically on portraiture -- actually, self-portraiture, which... well, I much prefer being on the back side of the lens, so let's just call this a stretching exercise. It's a monthly thing, so not too much pressure, and God knows I don't need more than a dozen pictures of myself lying around. Really I see it as a chance to learn creative portraiture strategies, using myself as the subject so I can experiment more freely. And you only have to look at the few pictures that come out okay.... Of course, these might have been a tad clearer had I thought to wash my windows before photographing them.
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| Self-portrait 2: Distracted |
This month's theme is "a piece of me," interpreted however we choose, and since none of the random body-parts images I took seemed remotely appealing I decided to go with these. The first, more obvious interpretation (to me): my camera is definitely a piece of me, all the more so since I started the 366 photo project. Perhaps a less obvious interpretation: our reflections are a major part of who we are: not only what (we think) others see but what
we see in the mirror or the window or a photo. It's so subjective, really; some days we "look good," others not so much. I wasted way too many years not liking how I looked, and now I realize that how I "look" is shaped from within, through my internal lens. I can choose what to think and what to see. I'm hardly Julia Roberts, but for all I know she has her share of not-so-good days, too. So, yeah, choose to see beauty, all around you and within you, too.
