Self portraits : 8-May-2014

Selfies – they are all the rage. Everyone has a camera in their pocket and the opportunities to record your own face in any number of settings abound. Kids, your neighbours, celebrities of every flavour, actors, wannabe stars, the family dog, unwanted politicians – you name them, the selfie is there to fill gigabytes of internet storage.

The problem is are they of any artistic merit? Can the self portrait be made creative and interesting again? BPC members gave it a whirl with some creative and amusing attempts.

Judge Suzanne Opitz came along to check out our work and dealt with the images quickly and effectively and gave out a lot of high marks in the process – although being a vignettaholic and cropaholic  😀  (her words – not mine) did extend some of her critique of the 88 images on offer. Keep in mind that its difficult to judge a self portrait when you can see the subject in the room too. We certainly appreciated her candour and input, and I think a lot of club members went away with some new ideas and some good marks.

Pop over to the Top Digital and Top Print pages for the top images that were presented, along with a few Editor’s choices (I have to indulge myself sometimes).

Finally, I’ve put what I consider one of the most important, high impact images of the night in this blog entry. It demonstrates creativity, honesty and a sense of self we should all aspire too.
As Jenny said “I am happy for my portrait to go on the web page. If it helps anyone else to come to terms with breast cancer I will be very happy.”  That says it all doesn’t it?

Chris