BLOOM - My First Self Portrait Series in Honour of Valentines Day!
- Feb 14, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 7, 2022
It’s Valentine's weekend, my degree is still online due to the pandemic; and while I am still stuck at home in lockdown number 3? (if you’re like me you’ve probably lost count haha!) I decided to get creative and try my hand at self portraits.
This was my first ever attempt at self portraiture, so I decided to keep it very simple and focused on the theme of love (it is Valentine’s after all) and found myself delving into the realms of Greek Mythology and the legend of Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. Aphrodite supposedly created the rose, the flower most commonly associated with Valentine’s day. They grew from the ground, watered with Aphrodite’s tears and the blood of her ill-fated lover Adonis. Today, the rose symbolises love and romance.
The rose became the prop the self portrait series was centred around, and I sourced red, white and pink roses to experiment with. I won’t lie and say I found the shooting process easy. There’s a certain vulnerability that comes with self portraits, when it is just you and the camera in the room, and at first it was uncomfortable; but it became easier when I stopped focusing on myself in the frame, and instead focused on using my body as a vessel to communicate a concept.
I think it’s incredibly important to put yourself in front of the camera every now and then. It allows you to empathise with your clients, putting yourself in their shoes for a moment to understand that being photographed doesn’t come naturally to everyone. The process of self portraiture can also be beneficial in the sense that you can experiment with new poses and ideas, without the fear of explaining it to someone else. Finally, it’s Valentine’s! Give yourself some self love and give self portraits a try!
You can find the series ‘Bloom’ over on my projects page. Alternatively, head over to my Instagram to view more images on the series, and behind the scenes footage on how I created them.
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