Self Portrait Artists

Cindy Sherman Cindy Sherman began as film photographer and progressed into digital photography. She is known for using herself as her own model, disguising her face with make up and costumes and creating a whole new persona. What I like about Sherman is the fact that she takes the idea of how women are today and produces an image of how she views us as a whole. Her images consist of everyday women who dress in sweat pants and wear thick layers of blue eyeshadow, or the middle age mother who is trying to act like her 21 year old daughter. Her photos are a commentary on the pressure women face in our current society to adapt to the social trends. Sherman uses the idea of "limited resources" by using only herself in her photos, and constructs a new world. She shows the budding artist that even though we may not have all the resources to our disposal, we can still create amazing art with a little extra imagination. The Starn Twins Mike and Doug Starn (a.k.a. the Starn Twins) are photographers and installation artists who are identical twins. Their work mostly consists of self portraits that are deconstructed and then reconstructed to "form one entity". After becoming introduced to their work in an alternative process photography class, I became inspired to deconstruct photos of my own and then reconstruct them on various types of canvases. The deconstruction process alters the photograph, and creates an entirely different image from its original. What I especially like about the Starn twins is their use of crude materials to reconstruct the images. The pieces are often ripped apart and simply glued back together, or sometimes stapled together but always creating a fusion as if the subjects in the image are one. Francesca Woodman Francesca Woodman, like Cindy Sherman, used herself as the model in her photographs. She strictly shot black and white film, and her scenery would often be abandoned . desolate areas. What I like about her photographs are the fact that she never really took a straight portrait of herself. Her images are always ambiguous and provided a haunting vibe. Woodman would insert herself within the walls of an old house, only allowing certain body parts to be shown, or she would use a slow shutter speed and created ghosting images. What I like about her images is that it is open for interpretation. To one person her photos could speak about neglect and abandonment, which could explain the uses of abandoned buildings. To another person her photo could mean that the subject is trying to connect with her surroundings and environment, like they are becoming the environment. The images are so vague that they force the viewer to think about their own interpretation, how it makes them feel and why they are developing those feelings.
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