Identity is not what I promise others Identity is what I do when I am alone Identity is what I think of others Knowing all the hatred they've shown

My self-portrait is a photo of me sitting in a tree, looking out, with pagan symbols written on my arms. I was sitting in a tree to continue the theme of narcissism and power, me sitting on the tree looking out is made to look like I am above others. It can be viewed in two ways; one, that I am better / more powerful than everyone else or that I am a role model and people look up / aspire to be me. The pagan symbols on my body are meant to symbolize not only my joy for learning about Greek/Pagan mythology but also my enthusiasm for learning. Pagan mythology is an interesting subject because you get to learn about people from a certain time period and how they worshipped gods / a higher being. You learn what they believed as truth and why they performed certain rituals. In the dark room I began with my negative, with the negative I put it in the glass container with the photo paper. I found the correct amount of lighting that it needed by testing it out in increments of five seconds. Once I found a proper amount of light, I exposed my paper to 15 seconds of light and then put the paper into the multiple solutions Once I finished I let the photo dry in the dry room and then waited for it to dry.

Self portrait Franzi

I was creating this image with Photoshop. I took several pictures and then decided for two of them, which I laid over each other and I made them in a black and white contrast so I could produce another self-portrait in the dark room. In the dark room, I put the printed copy of my negative over a white light sensitive paper and dispensed light on it for 10 seconds. As a test, I tried it between 5 and 15 seconds and 10 was the best. Just for fun, I did another test photogram for 13 seconds, but it was too dark so I decided for the 10 seconds photogram.

In my self-portrait I took two pictures of myself, as aforementioned and laid them over each other. In the first picture I cover my eyes with my hands. The second picture is myself screaming and my eyes are open. In this self-portrait I wanted to describe how I feel in the inside. Most of the time I am calm, I am in my mind, meaning I know exactly what I am doing, I dream a lot and I am peacefully rested. But then on the other side, I can be very aggressive, I get annoyed easily, I get bored easily, I need change. Sometimes the frustration with the expectations of society is just too much. Sometimes I can’t stay rested peacefully, some days I break. Sometimes I have to scream, I have to get rid of all of the bad emotions I have to tell the world that I am not fine, that I am sad, that I cannot live anymore. I am trying to hide this side of me with my hands; I am trying to cover who I really am. Only a few people know the true me. But how am I supposed to show my true self when I don’t even know who I am? The sudden shift of frustration and happiness confuses me every time. I don’t know what I want in my life, I don’t know who I can trust, I don’t know where I belong. And this frustration, the silent scream, that I am trying to cover makes me someone I don’t even know yet and I get scared of that person too.

The black and white photogram brought out the seriousness and the twisted personality I have and I described in the paragraph above.

As already aforementioned I took pictures of myself in the darkness and there was one flood light that I was trying to focus directly on my heart, because I am trying to describe my true self, but still lights up my face. It was really hard to focus the light, because we weren’t able to move the light source, so I had to kneel down, which I didn’t plan when I first thought about my project. Overall I am very satisfied with my self-portrait, because it describes my true self and the process was thoughtfully planned and the metaphors fit the photogram.

Self portrait & Artist statement

Artist statement

            My portrait is the picture of me sits on the ground by the white fence. It expresses my philosophy of unknown of the future, and no matter how bad the reality is, there is always hope.

            The night sky on the background represent the future, it has a really dark color to represent the unknown of future. The stars on the night sky are the tiny light that represents the possibilities of future. The fence in front of me is the coward voice deep in my heart that tells me not to be brave and step forward. In the photo, I am staring at the night sky, and trying to figure out what is behind the darkness

Firstly, I asked my roommate to take the picture of me sitting by the fence.  Then I found a picture of the starry night from Internet. After I layered them on each other, I used Photoshop to make it black and white with more contract. Although, I had problem with the negative because it was too light the first time, it turned out to be a really good picture with many contracts.

I believe high school is the time period that we find our future direction, and what to do as a job later in life as well. So we should try all different things in order to find what we most like. Art as a important part of my life, I really want to achieve something about art in the future, however, after seeing so many talented people, I do feel hesitated about continue doing art or not. As we all know, it’s really hard to make a living doing art if nobody appreciates your work. When parents are questioning about my dream, when people sneer at my dream about future, I will just forget about that, and hold on to what I believes. If I cannot take away the darkness, I will light it up by bringing more possibilities to it.

Self Portrait

Self Portrait - Artist Statement

My self portrait is made out of two photographs put over each other in Adobe Photoshop. I took the pictures in the same spot on the Empire State Building in New York City. In the picture that I used as the background I look away from the camera down to the city which is in the background. By looking down to the city I want to represent, that I care about all the others that are down there all over the earth. In the second picture, which I put over the other one, I face the camera, by which I want to represent that I also care about the here and right now. The two photographs together stand for all the different directions that life goes. For all the decision I have to make and it also stands for time, the present and the future. I have to make my own decisions to become more independent. In the darkroom I first put the paper under the light for 6 seconds, but by then photograph did not have the kind black I wanted it to have. It was to light. After that I used 10 seconds and the picture got the exact same color as the original had on my computer.

Self Portrait

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Self Portrait- Maggie Schima

Artist Statement- Self Portrait When I first started working on my self-portrait I thought about making something very personal, intimate, which is why I choose to shoot it in a small room of the basement of our house. I used almost half of my wardrobe and threw them simply all on the floor. Then I sat right in the middle of them and partly covered myself with them until it felt comfortable. I actually intended to ask one of my housemates to take pictures of me, but she then had no time to help me, so I had to figure out a way to do it myself. I normally I prefer working on my own and I hate it when others take pictures of my, so this was not a bad thing in fact, so I used the self-action release. I placed the camera on a chair and took a few test pictures to make sure the angle was right. I took about thirty pictures and could not really decide which one to take until I ad the idea to layer the two I liked best in Photoshop. Afterwards I printed the inverted picture on acetate and took it into the darkroom. There I had some minor troubles to find the right time of exposure, which turned out to be five seconds. I then put the paper into all three chemicals and waited until it would be fully developed and dry. My self-portrait reflects the idea that every human is built up of several different layers, which are revealed depending on the situation we are in. The clothes represent those layers and how we create them in order to protect ourselves. The only time we can fully be ourselves, is when we are ensured that no one is around us and that we are completely alone. I sometimes feel like getting rid of each one of those layers, but at the same time I fear, just like everybody else does, being totally exposed to the world, which is why we keep holding on to our protection. But this is not only a bad thing, sometimes we need something to hide behind, that shelters us and protects us from all the terrible things happening around us. They help us until we become strong enough to be able to finally remove at least some of them.

Self Portrait and Artist Statement - Katie Morgan

Self Portrait Artist Statement

Katie Morgan

My self-portrait was shot using a long-exposure and Christmas lights. The image formed by moving the lights created a sort of glowing body around me, almost like wings or maybe a cage. The idea that the body created by the lights can be seen as either something used to mobilize me or to confine me represents my struggle to find freedom in a relatively restrictive social structure. The irony that light is usually seen as a positive image to provide guidance is shown in the fact that the light is not guiding me at all, it is, in fact, enclosing me. In the portrait, I wear a long ball gown despite my location, which is a plain hallway. The inappropriateness of the clothing shows that I have trouble conforming to expectations. I’m looking over my shoulder to portray suspiciousness and apprehension of things around me. The perspective of the shape of the hall makes the space look like its getting smaller as you go forwards, which is the direction my body is facing. It feels like if I keep walking in the direction I’m expected to go, I will be trapped.

Developing my image in the dark room took multiple attempts of trial and error. The first 2 or 3 times I tried to develop the image from the negative, the picture came out much too dark, making it hard to see my face or dress. However, after turning the contrast up on the enlarger, I was able to produce a better image, although I do not like the black and white developed photo as much as I like the original colored image.

self-portrait

photo, a photo by alexandra20231 on Flickr.

self-portrait

photo, a photo by alexandra20231 on Flickr.

20131122_112636

20131122_112636, a photo by Elsa Diaw on Flickr.

i think about how to show my philosophy through my protriat, so for me, life, growing up is a process of complete yourself, it is same as makeing a puzzles, from the blank paper to the whole picture, using those puzzles picese. you might make mistakes and you might do not know what to do next, however you will get a satisfy anwser. Also, there is only one picese should be in one place, so you can not get two or more things at the same time, do not be greed.

Elizaveta Marinokha

Alexis Martino

Integrated Media

Artist statement

11.15.13.

Behavior Lacking Balance

Being a good person doesn’t mean not having bad characteristics or being perfect. According to modern society, people see themselves as ordinary figures who look around with jealous eyes and try to find a prettier version of how they should look. The only reason I talk about it is because I consider myself a good person, but I don’t include being perfect in this regard. My philosophy is that everyone makes decisions, which are not often conscientious, and I do too. Every person considers his or herself to have a dark (demonic) and light (angelic) side.  My self-portrait shows how people are beautiful, but they don’t show it. For me, skipping this impossible search for unattainable perfection is the most pleasurable part of being me. We only have one life and I don’t think having a good personality comes from being perfect. I think others need to consider both sides of behavior equally to successfully exist as individuals.

My picture was made on an iPhone 5 camera. I used black eye marker and red lip stick to express the devil part of my face. Make up wasn’t used on the other part of the face. It presents the angel’s clear and refined soul. The picture was inverted in Camera Raw Photoshop and printed on special paper. After the image was processed in the darkroom and the processing time was 15 seconds for the right part of my face (the bright, angel part) and 20 seconds to make the color darker (the demon part) for the other.

My philosophy, characteristics and ideas were expressed in my self-portrait. It shows the difference between two sides of people`s souls. My face is a visual metaphor that shows the diversity of my mind and personality.