Light and Lens, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 12Imagemaker on Assignment

 

 

MAKING PORTRAITS: WHO AM I AND WHO ARE YOU?

Since 1493, when Albrecht Dürer began a series of painted self-portraits that provided insight into the changing nature of his character and beliefs over a lifetime, artists have expressed numerous inner concerns through self-portraiture. Self-portraits allow artists to show awareness of their own appearance and traits, producing evidence of the intricacies of their lives. Self-portraits continue gazing back at viewers in another place and time, perhaps long after their makers are dead. Self-portraits can be projections of the self that represent you as you are, or they can present hidden, even secret, aspects of the self. Traditionally, self-portraits were ...