Self-portraiture Sells

Yesterday the world record for the most expensive photograph sold at auction was broken. And it was a self-portrait – Cindy Sherman's Untitled #96 went for $3.9 million at Christie's. Story here.

And the top lot of the night, was another self-portrait – specifically Andy Warhol's Self Portrait (1963-1964), which sold for a massive $38.4m. (Although not classed as a photograph, it's is interesting to note that it is made with his famous photo-booth pictures.) Story here.

It seems that self-portraiture is receiving a lot of attention on the market. Couple this with Susan Bright's recent and well-received publication Auto Focus, and it would appear that there is a real growth of interest into this sub-genre. 

I can see this being a benefit to me, particularly for a London exhibition held within a high-interest time and location for the photographic and art worlds. Hopefully my work can stand out as something original, whilst still being associated with a style that is sought after. Who knows, maybe a wealthy art collector will take a liking. I'm just saying.. 

Jenny Saville

In collaboration with fashion photographer Glen Luchford, Jenny Saville produced the photographic series Closed Contact. These striking and graphic self-portraits (Saville was the model and had directive control) arise from her continued interest in confronting perceptions of feminine beauty - often through large-scale painted nudes, placing emphasis on flesh and voluptuousness.

Her ideas for this series arose from her observations of cosmetic surgery (she witnessed several operations), and her contemplation of the culture which surrounds it. I understand that she was struck by the idea of being able to create beauty through a surgeon's knife – to manipulate, alter, cut, and push about the body at will, and also the apparent normality of it all to the clients and doctors. Her standpoint isn't negative or critical of cosmetic surgery however, she is simply fascinated by its application. (You can see Saville's observations and opinions on the matter, in this documentary about her work – go from 7:07).

Her response was then to produce the Closed Contact series, in which she moulded and manipulated her body on a large sheet of perspex with Luchford taking photographs from below.

Closed Contact #14 (above), and #8

Interesting to note here that Saville had a mirror positioned beneath her to assist her with posing, (as seen in this video clip - from 0:48) presumably so that she could arrange her face and body to the desired, and quite extreme, level of manipulation. Just so as I have used a two-way mirror to find and capture that exact moment when my face is transfigured to a dramatically altered expression. 

What remains unclear, is Saville's motive for producing this work insofar as how she wants it to be read. Personally I find the images quite shocking and even a bit repulsive, and yet I also feel compelled to examine them – drawn to identify the features amongst the gruesomeness. Katherine Dunn makes her analysis in the exhibiton catalogue: 

"The images offer, not a story, but an experience that begins in visceral uneasiness and gradually shifts to a haunted serenity. The discomfort is complicated. It is triggered partly by our sense of the instantaneous monstrosity of a normal human transformed by the spreading of the shape beyond what we understood as normal…"

Words taken from the Closed Contact page on the Gagosian Gallery website.

I don't see my own images causing great discomfort, and certainly not a sense of monstrosity, but I am interested in there being a suggestion of transfiguration to 'beyond normal'. I suppose the major difference is that I want there to be a stronger element of my personality coming through the work. I hope that I can bring to the fore the 'self mockery versus narcissism' complex that I investigated in my research project, and that this will be suggested through the title of the work and the accompanying statement. I'm also hoping that viewers will interact with the mirror/video installation, and through that interaction, consider how they publicly-present a version of themselves, and then how they might alter it for their reception within the exhibition space. Perhaps they'll even take part in some vanity-busting self-mockery.

Final Two-way Mirror shoot

The previous shoot granted me technical success regarding the lighting and the reflections. But there were a few things that needed addressing before I tackled the final shoot. The framing was a bit too tight in the previous images – sometimes just cutting off the top of my head (part of this is due to the fact that some of the poses involve a tension throughout the body, and hence my head tends to vary its position within the frame). The simple solution to this, was to zoom out for the shoot and then crop back in tighter, in post-production.

The other issue with the previous shoot was that my performance felt a bit ad hoc. It was essentially just a test shoot - but it drew my attention to the fact that I needed to plan my poses. I was aware that I had already rehearsed the poses (without really meaning to) in my engagement and play in front of a normal mirror, and there were certain expressions that I wanted to capture. I wrote a list of my ideas: 'make the face as vertically stretched as possible', 'as squashed as possible', 'every feature big and swollen', 'small and thin', 'this side up and the other down'; and then drew up a quick guide with simple diagrams or words to represent my ideas. This then served as a rough guide and reference point for the performance. It wasn't a complete instruction manual, because spontaneity in front of the mirror ('going a bit wild') was a useful method in this production.

Here's a contact sheet of the majority of the shoot (minus some errors and repeats). The difficult decision-making process of which ones to exhibit now begins.

I also shot some video on the day. The first is a video performance alike to the photographs. It is a combination of the rehearsed expressions from above, and spontaneous play acting similar to that found on the Gorgeous Georgeo video blog. The second video is a technical explanation (or 'making of'), of how the two-way mirror images were produced. 

Pixel Portrait - the real(?) starts to appear

There was a big step between this and the previous pixel-portraits. That difference is down to the use of blending and shading. Until now I have mostly painted using block colours (because I initially needed to determine the principal areas) and of course this colouring is not particularly realistic. Now that the face layout has been defined, I have been able to mix these colours – by varying the opacity of brushstrokes between colours, and then overlaying them – to give a gradient of tone to the skin. This then allowed me to begin utilising shading, which in turn gave depth to the features, and advanced the level of realism of the image.

Pixel-Painted Self-Portrait #6

As the portrait progresses, its development is slowing. The sessions now take the better part of a day, and the level of detail (now working with brushes as small as 2 or 3 pixels in diameter) means that the changes are increasingly subtle. When I started the project I had no completion date in mind, as I was aware that the process of this task was very much an unknown, and to aim for a realistic looking photograph made by painting pixels could take an incredibly long time.

Hence for the upcoming degree shows, I will present this project as a work in progress. I see this as a good thing, better in fact than if I were to present a final and resolved piece. If I can find a way to neatly exhibit the six successive pixel portraits in an online gallery (see below), then an audience can engage with the project's evolution. And then there is the potential to generate interest in the subsequent development and outcome of the project - an opportunity for the work to acquire a following and have life after these upcoming shows.

(adding shading to the eye area)

Self-Portrait with Mirror and Pixel Canvas (after Johannes Gumpp)

Johannes Gumpp Self Portrait with Mirror and Canvas

An effective presentation of the pixel portraits for now, is as a short slideshow, with a a slow cross dissolve between each image - which becomes especially effective towards the end when the transition is less noticeable. Enjoy.

Mirror Video Delay Installation

Recently I had the idea to add an installation piece to accompany my planned exhibition work. In short this piece will consist of a tall plinth/box, mounting in one side a two-way mirror, behind which is a video camera, which gives a delayed output of 1 minute or so to a monitor on the other side of the plinth to the mirror. In other words it will allow a viewer to look at, interact, confront, pull faces to etc. their reflection and then have the opportunity to watch it moments after, from the mirror's/camera's point of view.

There are several reasons for this decision. My self-portraits made using a two-way mirror, will appear, and may be thought of, as simple direct studio portraits. This would be a shame considering the effort applied in that setup, and the theory behind the work which is strongly connected to the mirror and the reflection. Including the mirror as part of an installation will then help in elaborating the process and motives of producing this work. An interactive element to a show is almost always a good idea, it gathers the audiences interest and helps them to feel involved, and hence more connected to the works on the wall. In the case of my two-way mirror images I feel that this installation, if accompanied by a suitable and simple explanation, could encourage the audience to participate in a similar self-mocking behaviour to my own. And furthermore, this participation could then greatly assist the audience in understanding my rationale for producing this project.

This diagram shows the design of the installation piece, including an internal layout. The plan has been submitted and approved by the wood workshop technicians at University, and I will proceed with construction next week. Arranging the video delay aspect of the piece has proven a bit more challenging. Such editing effects, are best done through a software program called Isadora, which was designed by performing arts practitioners to use in multi-media and video installation performance pieces. It is an incredibly powerful and complex program, utilising a sort of flow chart design of any 'scene' you wish to create, and with a huge number of 'actors' - each of which produces a different effect. Thankfully a video delay is quite simple and can be seen in situ below. There is also a 'capture control' actor, which in line with setting up power scheduling on the computer, means that the installation will be fully automated, turning itself on in the morning and off at night (hopefully), and therefore saving me the need to unscrew the side panel each day. 

The Two-way Mirror Project

The initial test shoot with the two-way mirror rewarded me with little, but taught me a great deal. The most significant lesson learnt was that it's all about the light, of course!

A two-way mirror is essentially a normal piece of see-through glass or acrylic, but with a sort of 'semi-coating' of reflective foil (a normal mirror has a full, light-impenetrable coating), which means that it has the ability to allow light to pass through, as well as reflect it. The function of a two-way mirror is dependant on the ambient light on either side of it. The side intended to behave as a mirror needs a lot of ambient light, so that it bounces back an image, and the see-through side needs to be dark, so that the image will pass through. Another explanation is provided by the very helpful people at mirrorworld.co.uk (where I purchased mine from):

In reality this means that the two sides must be isolated from one another and the difference in light needs to be dramatic. In fact, if I wish to produce pictures which will appear as straight portraits, then the 'window side' needs to completely dark so that the camera doesn't see itself in a partial reflection.
My solution to this - bin bags. And clothes pegs.

This way the camera sits in a completely unlit environment, and as far as it is concerned the mirror is effectively a window. Meanwhile the subject (me) is well illuminated by the studio lights, and experiences only a mirror. And what does this particular subject do when he encounters a mirror...

Wols/ Arnulf Rainer

The following two artists have both produced self-portraits in which they alter and manipulate their facial features.

Wols (pseudonym for Wolfgang Schulze) was both a painter and photographer working in France in the 1930's and 40's, known for his depictions of ambitious scenes using modest every-day objects. In 1940 he produced a series of what was then considered remarkable self-portraits, exploiting the potential to vary his facial appearances and expressions.

Arnulf Rainer, from the series Face Farces

"Arnulf Rainer's main subject has always been himself, seen as an actor in extreme situations, comic or tragic. His first photographic self-portraits were made in a passport photo-booth in Vienna's main railway station in 1968-9. His idea was that acting in front of the camera would call up 'dormant, or psychopathic reserves of energy'. Then in the 1970's he began to supplement the photographs with violent over drawing, to reveal new and unexpected personages within himself, he called the portraits face-farces. The grimaces in these portraits are projected outwards, and they are affronts meant both to engross and to keep others at a distance." (Words taken from the Phaidon Photography Book.) 

The reason I have presented these two together, is not because I want to make a strong connection between them, but because on discovering them and recognising their similarity to my intended project, I felt it was important to acknowledge their significance as past photographic work which defines the context of my own. In that respect, I need to question what there motives were for producing these photographs. It would seem that Rainer's work relates to issues of internal conflict, and there may be an incentive from him to resolve this. Wols motivation seems to be more of an experimentation and light-hearted playfullness - but I imagine that for 1940 they would have seemed quite unusual portraits.

I can draw parallels here to my own work. To Wols in the sense that I too am hoping to present photographs that are a bit unusual, that will draw attention due to their originality (but with a rationale of deeper meaning behind them). But also (and more so) to Rainer, in my attempts to resolve something internal. A significant focus of my research project was self-mockery. And that is a charecteristic that I want to communicate with my final images, and I hope an audience will find them humorous. But self-mockery is a characteristic with many levels, beneath it is a self-criticism, even a self-inflicted insult. And the criticism I make of myself, and the personality flaw I wish to ameliorate with this project, is vanity and narcissism. I think it is important that I find a way to deliver that motive to the audience (it could just be a short statement accompanying the images somewhere) as it will offer them a greater understanding of the exhibited photographs.

Bruce Nauman

With my proposed plans to produce self-portraits which display extreme and altered facial performances, comes the need to look to other artists who have dealt with similar subject matter. The first is Bruce Nauman.

From Study for Holograms

There is also a similar video performance 'Pinch Neck' found here.

Nauman argues for his own body to be considered as viable as any other object for the use of sculpture, as is evidenced in his famous Self-Portrait as a Fountain. The quality I see in the images above is the extremity to which Nauman transfigures his face – it almost becomes alien. And that extremism is something I would like to attempt, to show the great variation possible within the facial appearance, perhaps even to lead the audience to question how two very different expressions can have been produced by the same person.

The major disparity between the images above and the ones I intend to produce, is that Nauman removes his identity by cropping the work. I want my identity to be a feature of my images, so as to highlight my attempts at humour and self-mockery as a counter to narcissism. My simultaneous criticism and indulgence of vanity is a very personal aspect, which defines my work.  However Nauman's faces have led me to question to what extent my own facial performances could be considered as sculpture. A part of me feels happy for them to be thought of that way, as demonstrations of behaviours which I would encourage others to partake in. And this thought in turn lends support to my plans for an interactive element of my exhibition.

Gorgeous Georgeo begins

The Gorgeous Georgeo video blog is now running. In short this aims to be a regularly updated diary of webcam performances - displaying a general indulgence of trivial aspects of my personality, experiences, thoughts etc. The motive of this is to investigate the desires (of me/of everyone) to be celebrity/revered/known through attempting humour.

The larger project is titled The Self-Indulgence of Gorgeous George, of which a detailed explanation can be found here. Also relating to this work, is the research I conducted into self-mockery within self-portraiture, which is summed up here.

Still from Face Rub

Stills from Arrow Shot, Self Videos

Studio Test with Two-way Mirror

Today was the first session with a two-way mirror in the studio. The experience is best described as a learning curve. Two-way mirrors do not easily provide the clean unhindered visual trick as seen in the movies – they need coercing into behaving correctly. Today I got close, but there is still a significant problem with reflections on the camera side. However I have a cunning and very much 'home-made' idea to solve this – we'll see from the next shoot if it succeeds..

Determining exposure was also awkward, because shooting through a piece of partially transparent acrylic reduces it by approximately two stops – as I found out through trial and error (pre-visualisation can only do so much in this case).

As well as progressing with this test process, I also managed to get a bit of 'behind the scenes' video thanks to my course mate Mino being on hand to shoot it. And this gave me the chance to explain some of the thoughts and motives behind the project, and also provide a peek at the set-up (accompanied by cheesy music and everything!)

Emma Sailah's Mirror Mirror project

Sailah is a photographer based in Sydney. Mirror Mirror is the title of her current and defining body of work, and is best described by her:

"Mirror Mirror project is part of an ongoing body of work that explores identity, voyeurism, and self-expression through innovative photographic techniques and practices. The project consists of a series of portraits and video footage shot through a two-way mirror as individuals sit alone in front of their reflection. The subjects became unintended exhibitionists, allowing the work to question an individual’s sense of self, private personas, and the nature of spectatorship." 

©All images copyright Emma Sailah.

For each session the participant would sit in complete isolation for 30 minutes whilst Sailah photographed them. Equally interesting to the images is the video footage which displays subjects reaction and then self-conscious presentation as 'unintended exhibitionists' as their pictures are repeatedly taken. See more here.

The relevance of Sailah's project to my own, is not just in its use of a two-way mirror, but in its exploration into a person's encounter with their reflection. In my research presentation I argued that engaging with a mirror is a naturally captivating experience, one that all people respond to in some way.  Would the poses and the expressions of Sailah's subjects be the same if they were just looking at a camera lens, as in a straight portrait?

Sailah states that her work aims to question individual's private personas, similarly I am looking to investigate the play and balance between the expression of private and public selves. The difference is that where Sailah's work adopts a voyeuristic process, mine will exhibit the rehearsed and controlled performance of self-portraiture.

On a purely technical note – I am drawn to the simplicity of Sailah's lighting. The grey background and balanced illumination allow the viewer to focus on the subject (she also took inspiration from Robbie Cooper - as mentioned on her blog). Compositionally – I will probably go for a tighter crop as my work is primarily about the facial performance.

Bedroom Self-portraits

This work arose almost without intention. Through the researching and planning done as preparation for the major projects, I found myself drawn to make self-portraits in a manner that any photographer, or even just camera user, might do: simple self-contemplative images, taken in a personal space, and utilising mirrors, timers, remotes, and webcams. I've come to title and know the work as 'The bedroom self-portraits'. Its earliest incarnation was in my initial experimentation and expression using a standard mirror.

 

 

Although these pictures are not part of my planned production. They do speak of the themes I want to address, which I suppose is why they have arisen. For instance the idea of an enigmatic duality between a public and private self. The images are made privately, in a private space, but them shown publicy, and hence undoubtedly contain some conscious altering of the presented me. Do I produce and edit the images to show me as attractive, thoughtful, mysterious? Or do I disregard those desires and go for something 'honest'? Or is it somewhere in between?

The images led me to think of Airyka Rockefeller's self-portrait series – Between or Before. I can't say I was inspired by the work as I made the association afterwards. But I feel that there is some parallel within the personal introspection of our self-portraits.

Airyka Rockefeller After the Acupuncturist 

Airyka Rockefeller Between Flesh and Stone

Broadcast Yourself!

Michael Wesch's talk delivered at the Library of Congress in 2008, in short, covered the anthropological changes in communication and human relationships resulting from the new forms of creation, collaboration, and distribution, owing to the user-generated content and input, on such websites as Youtube. I think it is an incredibly informative and thoughtful piece of presented research, and in particular relevance and interest to my work, is the study of webcam performances.

Within the first few minutes of this 55 min presentation, is an example of the potential power of Youtube and the Internet to make content go viral – and that is of course the 'Numa Numa Dance' by Gary Brolsma. Wonderfully described as single-handedly justifying the existence of webcams, Brolsma's recorded and shared performance, marks the beginning of global video sharing, responding, and re-mixing (over 58,000 tributes have appeared to Brolsma's original video).

The topic to really mention though, is Wesch's discussion on the experience of an individual communicating with a webcam, and the notion of context collapse (you can't judge the context of what you're presenting if you have no idea when and who by, it will be viewed) – "as if everybody is watching, but nobody is there" – an experience which is very private (often made in a bedroom) and also  very public – with the potential to be seen by the whole world. And on top of this is then the likelihood that you will watch back what you present, and this then results in a 'hyper self-awareness'. Watch this on Wesch's video above for a better explanation: a good bit from 21.26, but definitely watch 24.55 to 28.05.

Insofar as the videos that I intend to produce under the online persona of Gorgeous George, Wesch's research gives me encouragement, as it champions the user generated and home-made content, and shows that there is potential, however difficult, to acquire a select or even mass audience. But also the matter of self-awareness found through webcam use, is fitting to my proposed aims to explore the varying versions of public and private self. How will my presented Gorgeous Georgeo character alter over the course of producing and re-viewing a video blog?

Progression of Pixel Portrait

The pixel-painted self-portrait is a long term project, making slow but steady progression towards equalling a photographic image in its appearance and pixel construction. A detailed explanation can be found on the proposal, and the first two pieces in the series can also be seen there. The next two are below.

Pixel-Painted Self-Portrait #3 

Pixel-Painted Self-Portrait #4

The time scale of the project has brought up a few issues, I've had a haircut, and my skin has got slightly darker as summer approaches. The way around this is, rather than attempt to match what I see in the mirror in each session, it would be better to use the reflection as a starting guide but at later stages work the pixels already there into a more realistic appearance. 

The fourth portrait was a big step in closing in on an accurate facial shape – the jawline was thinned, eyes slightly enlarged, and nose lengthened. It was at this point that I had the first notion (faint as it was) of the portrait taking on my character – for a brief moment the canvas was alike to a mirror. This gives me the encouragement to press on. 

Richard Brilliant discusses the captivation of viewing a portrait as an oscillating experience: identifying and relating to the subject - feeling their presence; whilst also accepting their absence - replaced by a subjective image with a degree of likeness. If at some point a viewer (who knows me by sight) can feel that they recognise me or my character on the canvas, perhaps even feel that they are looking at the real me, whilst still being aware of the images 'painted' creation – then that would be a very intriguing experience to incite in an audience. It's a long way off, but it would mark this project as something of a success. 

Symposium Playback

Self-Portrait, Self-Mockery, The Mirror. Here is the audio track for those of you that didn't make it to the symposium.

Self-Portrait, Self-Mockery, The Mirror.

Post-Symposium Thoughts

Below is my evaluation following our research symposium on Friday. (My work leading up to this can be found under the 'Photography in Context' label.)

Delivering the talk - Photo by Craig Leaper

I feel that my presentation went well, and equally I think the symposium was an overall success – I certainly enjoyed both. Although the idea of delivering a presentation was immensely nerve-wracking and the relief felt afterwards was substantial, it does feel something of a shame now that it’s over. I am looking forward to having a digital version, which can be dispersed online to a potentially larger audience. I feel I have a reasonably strong ability at public speaking and providing an engaging talk, so when coupled with the slides, this online presentation could hopefully prove appealing.

I based several elements of my presentation on the lectures of Dr Sally Miller, of the University of Brighton. Aesthetically, I kept the slides clean and simple using a white background, black text, a comfortable font, and straightforward arrangement of content, so that the audience would not be distracted. I also took inspiration from her lectures regarding the structure of the talk: firstly a theoretical introduction highlighting the wider points of the topic and bringing them together to construct an argument; secondly a progression evidencing practitioners’ work to demonstrate that argument; and finally – concluding on a specific thematic point, which related back to the exampled work, and therefore provided an argument in a manner which could be readily absorbed by the audience. It was this aspect of Sally Miller’s lectures – being in depth but also easily understood – which I wished to emulate. Asking some of the listeners afterwards, it seems that this was achieved.

For me, there is a lot of importance placed on the verbal delivery of a presentation because it has a significant effect on keeping the attention of the audience. When producing the final text, I found it easiest to write as I would speak, so quite often not in proper or formal sentences and frequently using colloquialisms. Under the advice of Ed Dimsdale, I practised the talk about four times – not too much (so as to keep it sounding fresh) but enough to become familiar with it and remember parts so that I could break from my script and look at the audience. I very much believe that a talk should be spoken and not read.  

If any area of the symposium could have been improved, then I think it would have been the question sessions. This was something that I think everyone suffered from, and was probably due to an audience that was small, possibly nervous, and likely fatigued after an hour of listening. I had prepared and hoped for questions regarding the gender of self-mocking practitioners, or possibly on the ranging variations between performance and autobiography within self-portraiture. Having said that, I was quite pleased that a dialogue began around the elements of my practice which were related to this research, and furthermore how I could develop and present my own work. On reflection, this connection between my research and what I’m hoping to produce, has probably been one of the most beneficial outcomes of the module. I now have a solid contextual grounding which informs my own progressing work, and I also have a presentable piece of supporting research (and further background knowledge) which can assist the manner in which I convey my practice.

It is now clear in light of the above, that I have achieved that which I set out to: an investigation which informs and is informed by my practical work. I have learnt that to conduct such a study is hugely valuable to an emerging practitioner. Looking back to the proposal, the investigation became more specific with the theme of self-mockery taking precedent. This I think made the enquiry a more original piece. I have gained confidence in both undertaking and presenting research, a task which I would be happy to tackle again. 

Two Purveyors of Eccentricity

A late edition to my presentation, among other small adjustments, following the feedback from last Friday's rehearsal, is the dancing sculpture work of Gilbert and George.

Throughout the research, artists that approach with an autobiographical perspective have been of greatest relevance. It has been especially interesting when the trait of self-mockery appears not only in the photographs or video they produce, but also in their presentation as practitioners – a trait ingrained in their personality. Gilbert and George's personality, or rather their joint persona (along with their humorous and ridiculing exhibition of it), is at the forefront of their 'singing and living sculptures' work, in particular their video piece Bend It.

Their recent appearance on This Week, discussing eccentricity and weirdness (it also features extracts from Bend It) can be found here.

Gilbert and George Bend It (still)