shooting myself
As the year draws to a close, I have started collating the photos I will be including in the 2015 edition of my annual photobook print. I previously talked about why I do this, and why everyone should.
This year has been particularly eventful for me. I've travelled quite a lot. There have been weddings, milestone birthdays, etcetera, etcetera. And as the 'guy with the camera', I've found myself shooting a lot of it, so I have many photos to choose from. There are, however, very few photos of me. The ones that do exist are hardly printable. Why? Well, I'm the guy with the camera. I'm always behind the camera, hardly ever in front of it.
Even more troubling is the fact that looking back, this has been the case for a long time. My friends and family can all look back fondly at the great photos of them I've captured over the years, while I'm left with occasional reflections in mirrors and shop windows, silly iPhone selfies and other such.
There are also hardly any photos of me as a child. In fact, there are fewer than 10! All of which I've now scanned and backed up. Odin forbid I loose those, and my hard drives - I would join the ranks of the Loch Ness Monster and Snuffleupagus when I'm gone.
I can't time travel, alas!, but I can ensure that going forward, I either hand my camera to someone to document my existence, or at least make more self portraits. I will, as a consolation, have my own personal conspiracy theory in the future - the guy who popped out of nowhere into existence.
There's nothing wrong with doing a Vivian Maier. She had them guessing for years.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of her when I took this :). I've got an OM-1 so I'll be trying out some B&W selfies soon.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, I know the feeling. Much fewer photos of myself than everybody else at events, and usually the only photos I like of myself are those I took myself.
ReplyDeleteTalatu, maybe we can swap cameras and shoot each other :)
Deletehehehe, just seeing this. Yes, good idea. I do remember liking the few you shot of me a few years ago. ;-)
ReplyDelete