Copied from the 6/25 post.
I was going to write an entry that explained the difference between a “selfie” and a self-portrait, however, I have come to the conclusion that both are forms of auto photography with the photographer simply as the subject.
Auto photography, as a tool in research, involves giving people cameras and letting them loose to photograph things important to them and let them pick the ones that most represent them; you then get an intimate picture of who they think they are – their identity, as it were, through their choice of subjects photographed and the images they choose to represent themselves. An artist’s body of work tells a lot about who they are, but the self-portrait lets you in a step closer.
So, the self-portrait composed, is an auto photograph that is an almost narcissistic in composition and a self-interpretation of one’s identity. The difference between a self-portrait and a “selfie”, I think, are that”selfies” are self-portraits capturing the moment and the place to document as if in evidence of existence more than a crafted photographic self-portrait in the more traditional sense. The “selfie” is the snapshot of that moment in their life, and the traditional self-portrait is the lens of how the photographer sees themselves. Both are valuable insights into psyche, and both preserve time and memory for retrospection.
Click this link to read more about the reason I shot these self-portraits.