Week 42: Simply ME (Member Photos)
Nicola Bowen - My 7 and 10 year old helped with this one. "Is my eye on the dot?" They were a fantastic team. I forgot to drop my chin, but hey we did good. I am pleased and surprised that I am embracing age looking at this photograph rather than being horrified that youth has left the building. My lines show who I am and who I have been. There are 'happy' wrinkle lines gifted by the years I have spent laughing with friends and loved ones. The scar on my forhead - well that was a benign cancer. It could have been a lot worse. I am living for today, and today is good.
Manjula Prabhu - Simple to me translates into black and white. So i decided to wear one. What next? I just needed a simple background and my son's room has the best light and plain walls. I had no clue where to go from here, so i decided to just think about my son and his jokes rather than be conscious of the camera. I look into the lens and i automatically have this veil that comes down. I then start criticizing myself. "My smile does not look genuine....", "Oh! i didn't realize my nose wrinkles up when i smile", "I get wrinkles around my eyes too"... "Oh my! Look at my double chin... when did that happen?" and the list goes on. For this very reason, I decided to not look at the camera and just be myself and embrace all my flaws and LOVE them. www.urbanhuesphotography.com
Trish Reschly - Oh, I don't really look at myself much...I had to laugh. I sure have aged in the past few years! In a culture that honors youth, I find myself explaining to the children that we should honor age and the wisdom that comes therewith. That the grey head is a head of glory. And reminding myself that age is not "sunset" (as if going into the blackness of night!) but of the blazing of the noonday.I am glad I have laughed often. I am glad that I see my Dad's skin appearing after a lifetime of having my mother's soft skin. I am glad my littles call me "old". I hope that I live up to the honor of that sweet statement!
Eboni Rivera - I hope you have so many moments in your life where you feel loved, from head to toe… by you. I wish you so many moments of feeling loved by you. People will love you. Some won’t. But they will all come and go… but you loving you? When you get that back, no one can take it away.-S.C. Lourie
Jenn Hulley - I have started, stopped, restarted and abandoned this self portrait project all together countless times in the past 2 years. I stop it for many reasons. Mainly because I become so completely frustrated when I can not execute the idea of have in my mind of what my image will look like.. You see, self portraits are hard. Like really, really damn hard. I am so used to styling images to absolute perfection, moving items a nudge here, adding or removing prop, texture or colour there until everything lines up and I can see the visual harmony unfolding in front of me. That is when I click, when I grab that moment because I know exactly how it looks and it looks the way I see it in my mind's eye.That harmony between your mind's eye and your eye is completely stripped from you with self portraiture. You literally can not see your subject as you work. And so there I sit, posing, moving, shifting myself and trying to fire the trigger remotely while hiding the tiny remote I have in my hands. Add on top of this the extra difficulty of trying to grab focus on myself when I am not in frame to set the focus. (Cue dramatic music as artist meltdown ensues).
I chose this image and processing because to me it says simplicity. Black and white, a monochrome look takes away visual distraction caused by colour. The composition is clear and simple, symmetrical and centred...the fact still remains that I do NOT like looking into the camera. Baby steps....
Melissa Vaughan - Simply Me. Yikes. A little apprehensive to publish this, but, here I am, wrinkles and softening chin and all. Adjusted white balance and that is all.
Kortney Fox - This is me right here: big nerdy glasses, pale skin, my favorite tank top, and crazy purple hair that could really use a trimming!
Lynette Davis - Simply Me | A Revelation | "ANGELICA:You want a revolution? I want a revelation. . ."WOMEN: Work!" *SNAP* Angelica, The Schuyler Sisters, Hamilton, An American Musical, Lin-Manual Miranda
I took a lot of pictures of myself trying to "get it right" in camera. I was also prepared to "edit, but not edit" the ones that made the final cut. There was an epic battle in my head between following the rules and bending them a little to get my "simply" great picture. This image kept pulling me back. Note the problems: hot spots on my face, eyes not quite in focus, detached limbs, blown out background - yes I can go on and on. So why am I, the studious photographer rules follower that I am, posting this imperfect picture? Because I had a revelation. I.LOVE.This.Picture! And I really don't give a flip if it's not perfect. It's mine. It's me. It's the moment. So I am embracing all of it (me included) and throwing my missing hand in the air and shouting "WORK."
Sara Lowing-Wright - Simply me. This is me being simply free! I really was looking forward to doing a nice simple portrait for this week, but last minute my husband surprised me with a weekend trip away to the Oregon coast to celebrate our ten year anniversary. So I had to make do and take a selfie. This was take on the tip of cape falcon, the point that we hiked to and got engaged at ten years ago...to the day! It was windy as I'm sure you can tell.
Elena Pendell - This photo is simply me. In a t-shirt. Hair air dried whichever way it wants. In my 40's so the gray hairs and wrinkles are becoming more noticeable. A touch of makeup. Slightly hesitant to let you in.
