Self-Portraiture

Self portaits let me create to my highest level or art. I can mix any colour, any texture, any lighting, anywhere, anyhow. Since this work is literally self-contained (makeup, costuming, photography and post processing are all self-created), I am able to work whenever inspiration hits. The camera is one of many tools that I use to create the finished art. It helps me learn about myself, not only how I look to the world, but also how I react to it. What I have learned has occurred through trial, error and countless hours of experimentation. Similarly, when it comes to lighting, my approach is more chaotic and improvisational. I use whatever is around me and I create my own lighting systems. I fully embrace the intuitive and autodidactic approach, because I am far more interested in creative, unique, DIY techniques than I am in professional equipment. I use photography as my way of recreating what's in my mind.

Although these are self-portrait photographs, I do not see them as portraits of myself. I would like the viewer to feel the same way and often it is the case that most people do not immediately realize that my work is self-portraiture. I want to tell convincing stories through these photographs.

The places I shoot, and the way I pose or am dressed, demonstrates a piece of my life story since I stay very transparent and natural.

"There is a special incentive for women artists to practice self-portraiture. Women have been so frequently used as subjects (for which we can read "objects") in the arts, including photography, that self-portraiture is a way to keep control of their own representation. This does not typically result in more "beautiful" or flattering depictions of the artist-subject. However, it does result in the subject really being the subject and not an object. We understand a portrait in any medium to be an artist's interpretive rendering of the "subject" while a self-portrait is an artist's presentation of self."

People still want photography, and autobiographical self-portraits in particular, to deliver some kind of truth. Together they form a story of an intimate part of the Artist’s life.