Self portraits - practice and therapy

Self portrait

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” Aristotle

I take a lot of self portraits.

There’s a long history of artists across many genres creating images or representations of themselves and there are many reasons why this practice is important.

There’s no question that taking self portraits or test shots is an invaluable way to learn and grow as a photographer, particularly one who is mainly taking portraits.

And this is why I started doing them.

It was an opportunity to experiment with lighting, settings and style. A safe way of trying out stuff that I could incorporate in a ‘proper’ shoot and working out what works and just as importantly, what doesn’t.

They can be as simple or elaborate as you want to make them. And the best bit ? The model is always available.

Although it can be a bit of a pain to do, constantly moving from behind the camera, posing, checking the shot etc, I began to thoroughly enjoy the process and more importantly I learned a lot.

But the more I did the more I realised that what had started as a purely practical technical practice had so much more meaning and substance.

I began to find out more about myself.

It became a way of finding out about myself, a process of self discovery.

I became more self aware. What began as simply looking at the images, became looking into them and consequently into myself.

But not as a narcissist might. At times it was uncomfortable but on reflection always revealing and overwhelmingly positive and productive.

If I was honest, I could see vulnerabilities as well as strengths.

What started out as a way of learning, experimenting and having some fun has become something far more significant and meaningful.

Perhaps it’s because of my age, I’m 62, but I’ve learned that I am comfortable with who I am and my appearance. That can only be a positive thing.

I can’t change me, but I can definitely change how I see myself and therefore understand myself better.

Making self portraits is a valuable process for any portrait photographer, but I really believe that it’s invaluable for anyone who has a desire to find out a bit more about themselves.

If you’re interested in finding out a bit more about the value and impact of making self portraits I would highly recommend taking a look at the thoughts of

Sean Tucker - https://www.seantucker.photography/

Andrea Chapman - https://www.andreachapman.com.au/

Sean talks about this in an interesting video on his YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEGHa1-Bro&t=574s

Andrea has a number of blog posts on the subject - https://www.andreachapman.com.au/blog/