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| Self, self |
The other day on CBC radio
there was a discussion about the increasing number of self portraits
that people were taking and posting on line: 'selfies' as they are
called. I can see that social media, with the need to illustrate one;s life to one’s friends, would lead to this behaviour,
although once upon a time that would have seemed the height of self
absorption. As I often take my own photo and do not post it on
Face-book I listened carefully. Oh, oh, was I being self absorbed?
Much of the time I use
myself as a model simply because I am handy and remarkably
inexpensive. I can run through a lot of practice sessions with studio
lighting, or put myself in landscape, and try out ideas without
having to negotiate with another human being. And then sometimes I
really do want to put myself within the frame instead of staying
behind the camera. I am part of what is going on after all, part of
the scene, and to leave myself out would seem artificial.
A couple of times last
week I walked with my mini camera and its little tripod or used the
screw mount on a hiking pole and set out to use the time delay
shutter release to permit me to jump in front of the lens before the
photo was taken. I found that there was a different dynamic at play,
that placing myself within the frame required that I plan things out,
as if I were setting up a stage play with actor, props and backdrop;
as though I were making a film with only one frame. Very different
from snapping a slice of reality, and 'different' can be difficult to
achieve in photography, bathed as we are amid thousands of similar
images in the digital age.
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