Guest Blogger - Tessa Roche on Self-Portraits

Today I have the privilege to introduce my very first guest blogger, Tessa Roche. She is a friend, baker extraordinaire (with a specialty in scones), and fellow photographer. In today's post, she talks about her desire to explore her personality through self-portraiture:

A Study of Oneself

“While a mirror or a photograph can tell a person what he or she looks like, that physical image does not reflect the whole self. Self-portraiture insists the artist embark on a journey of self-exploration in order to make decisions about how to represent him/herself authentically” (National Gallery of Art). I have been intrigued by self-portraits for as long as I have been a photographer and turning 25 seems like a great time to focus and work more on this concept. 

A self-portrait allows an artist to express many veins of their interests and personality. It can also show the changes in a person from day to day or year to year. I guess the best place to start would be to focus on what distinctively makes me, me. A self-portrait is meant to say something about oneself, whether it be physical or emotional. A fellow photographer friend of mine, Bek, seems to create self-portraits almost naturally. She shows where she is, how she looks and how she feels all in one portrait. And they are not just photos of Bek; they say something about her personality in her artistic style. I strive to be able to photograph myself as Bek captures herself. I just have to start clicking that shutter and experiment with techniques that work best for me.

Kudos to all of you who are successful in your self-portraiture and good luck to those of you (like me) who are choosing to start dabbling in the subject.

 
Famous self-portrait artists worth studying:  Van Gogh, Cindy Sherman, Kelli Connell. 

Photograph Copyright Tessa Roche