Look at Me

Recently I have become interested in portraiture, especially photographic portraits. Two things have been contributing to this interest: having my portrait taken by Martin Parr last month and seeing the Karsh 100 show at the MFA, Boston. While a portrait presents information about the sitter, it also conveys information about the artist: technical skills, perspectives, and the editing of reality. There are two upcoming courses on portraiture in Boston. One is a one-week intensive course at the SMFA in March called, Identity: The Contemporary Portrait, taught by Sean Johnson. The other is a 4-week seminar at the Photographic Resource Center, Contemporary Trends in Photographic Portraiture, taught by Roswell Angier (2/17-3/10/09). If you can't do either, Roswell Angier has a book about taking photographic portraits, Train Your Gaze, available on Amazon.
I especially like portraits in which the artist inserts him/herself. Christine Rogers, a SMFA alum who is now on faculty there, did a series in which she had her photo taken with other families having their portraits taken at a commercial studio. Futoshi Miyagi did a series of photos of himself with gay men who were strangers, in their apartments (shown here). These photographers play with the ideas of insertable intimacy and the deconstruction of relationship images.