Guest Directed Self Portrait 8 directed by TheIvoryTowerCrumbles.
“Pick a word, any word. It can be your favorite word or the name of an old lover or a country you’ve left behind. It can be a four-letter word. It’s your word. Write it on your body with marker or lipstick, breathe on the mirror and draw it in the steam, or make it with block letters you happen to have laying around the house. It doesn’t matter how you create your word, it just has to be in the picture.”
My word is “creature”.
These are my instructions for the Guest Directed Self-Portait project number Ten:
Take a picture of yourself with an important thing.
You could tell us what the thing is, and why it is important to you.
You could tell us how it smells, feels, tastes, sounds, if these are applicable.
(T)
You can see peoples responses to this prompt here.
This is my attempt at following Molly Peck’s directions for a self portrait:
“(written for a right-handed person; if you are left-handed, please mirror the directions; if you have limited dexterity or mobility, a tripod or camera placed on windowsill will work as well) Use a camera (or lens) that will allow you to focus fairly close (arm’s-length) If you choose to wear a garment, choose something that says as little as possible about time and place and identity. Locate a window that provides enough sunlight to act as your only light source (if you have several to choose from, try them all to see which light you like best. Extra points if your window is near a corner so that a second wall will be at your back if the window is on your right) Raise the blinds, open the curtains…let in the sunlight. Stand with your right side almost touching the window sill. Step back the length of your foot, then sit on the floor. (If there are objects behind you that can be easily moved, move them out of the frame) Place your right elbow on the window sill, holding your camera aimed at your face from slightly above and to the right (it may be easier to let the back of your hand touch the window glass). Think posture thoughts (a balloon attached to the top of your head?) to elongate your neck even if you are in a slouching or crouched position. If you (like me) easily get a double-chin in pictures (only if you don’t like it!), think about invisibly smoothing your double-chin-prone area forward into space. Try not to say anything specific with your mouth. Place the pad of your left middle or index finger, if they are available to you, into the hollow above your collarbone. Convey longing in all of your fingers. Look down with your eyes (or close your eyes), and think about crushing disappointment (either feeling it, or causing it). Inhale. Exhale. Relax your shoulders. Just as you are about to press the shutter, look directly up into the center of the lens (as if you are actually looking into eyes that matter very much to you) while remembering our capacity for forgiveness. Press the Shutter. That’s it. The tumblr tag feature doesn’t work very well, so please let me know via ask if you post one so that I can share it. Feel free to tag it GuestDirectedSelf also (it couldn’t hurt, right?). Everyone who participates in this self-portrait will have a turn to direct a self-portrait for everyone else (I’ll figure out the logistics of that shortly– maybe guest-director order will be dictated by order in which first-participation-shots are received?)”
You can read more about the project here and see the other submissions for this prompt here.
I drew @MissSpite. She drew me, see?
I got painted by the excellent Molly Peck!!
I have been a big fan of her work for a while, so to see my wretched face in one of her beautiful paintings really is quite something.
Thanks Molly.
“The model was an American expatriate, ((a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau)) who married a French banker, and became notorious in Parisian high society for her beauty and rumored infidelities. She wore lavender powder and prided herself on her appearance. The English-language term “professional beauty” was used to refer to her and to a woman in general who uses personal skills to advance herself socially.[4] Her unconventional beauty made her an object of fascination for artists; the American painter Edward Simmons claimed that he “could not stop stalking her as one does a deer.” Sargent was also impressed, and anticipated that a portrait of Gautreau would garner much attention at the upcoming Paris Salon, and increase interest in portrait commissions.”
“While the work was in progress, Gautreau was enthusiastic; she believed that Sargent was painting a masterpiece. When the painting first appeared at the Paris Salon under the title Portrait de Mme *** in 1884, people were shocked and scandalized; the attempt to preserve the subject’s anonymity was unsuccessful, and the sitter’s mother requested that Sargent withdraw the painting from the exhibition. Sargent refused, saying he had painted her “exactly as she was dressed, that nothing could be said of the canvas worse than had been said in print of her appearance”. Later, Sargent overpainted the shoulder strap to raise it up and make it look more securely fastened. He also changed the title, from the original Portrait de Mme ***, to Madame X – a name more assertive, dramatic and mysterious, and, by accenting the impersonal, giving the illusion of the woman archetype.The poor public and critical reception was a disappointment to both artist and model. Gautreau was humiliated by the affair, and Sargent would soon leave Paris and move to London permanently.”
Paul Greer 