Self portraits unlike selfies, are very different in terms of framing, compositon and other photographic rules. My idea of a self portrait is based on the subject of alienation and environmental exploration. I consider the theme of loneliness as a vital aspect in understanding the environment, separated from the “noise” of society, and by becoming more conscious of it.
The above (1) Self Portrait photo was inspired by Vivian Maier, who was an unknown photographer during the late 1950s and lived a private life until her dead in April 21, 2009. She kept her work secretively from the rest of the world. Maier’s photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008 by Slattery.
The technique used in the photograph(1) is to break the Rules of Thirds, by using the centre as the focus of interest, having equal space in the horizontal and vertical.
The idea of the focus of interest in the photograph is to give the audience a perspective of “a world” which has its own definitive meaning of closure and solitude that comes from separation.
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more”
– Lord Byron
Reference: Maier, V. (2019). [online] Available at: http://www.vivianmaier.com/
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