Tuesday 9 November 2010

Self-portraiture on the BBC

Art critic Laura Cumming presented 'Ego: The Strange and Wonderful World of Self-Portraits' broadcast on BBC4 last Thursday. She didn't examine photography, but the points of discussion, the arguments, criticisms, and other theories were I think, still applicable to lens-based work. Unfortunately the full programme is no longer available, but the following clip is a good example of where photographic self-portraits could be considered in addition to her point.



Later on in the programme, there was a very interesting scene where Laura Cummings and Patrick Hughes, whilst standing in front of one, contemplated the mirror, or rather the reflection. I remember Hughes' point being the curiosity between the two perceptions of the mirror: on one hand it can be so convincing, so easily taken for granted that it is absolutely real, on the other, its counter-reality - the shininess, the scaled down size, the inverted image, and the struggle and hence the fascination when faced with a mirror.

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