Deadline: Monday 8th September
Submission: Class Padlet + Canvas

Requirements

1. Create an online Blog

   • This will be my ongoing research & development blog for the module

     Instagram and padlet

   • Upload research, notes, experiments weekly.

2. 1 x Self-Portrait

   • Any medium: photo, video still, collage, manipulated image, experimental technique.

   • Must be created by myself not just a selfie snap

   • Post it to Padlet + upload to Canvas.

3. Written Rationale (50–100 words)

   • Short text explaining my self-portrait.

   • Include concept (why I chose this approach) and process (how I made it).

Inspiration

The module gave examples to think about:

• Ansel Adams (1933) traditional, dignified photographic self-portrait.

• Susan Meiselas (1971) casual, intimate, almost snapshot-like.

• Zanele Muholi (2019) bold, identity-driven portraiture.

• Claude Cahun (1930) surreal, performative, and gender-challenging.

• Frida Kahlo (1938) symbolic self-portrait with animals and props.

• Alec Soth (2010, “Unselfie”) avoids the literal face, focusing on absence/identity.

• Robert Cornelius (1839) the first photographic “selfie”!

To-Do Before Deadline

• Pick a concept (traditional vs experimental, face vs symbolic).

• Shoot my self-portrait (camera, tripod, phone, or creative technique).

• Do any necessary edits (Lightroom/Photoshop or even analogue manipulations).

• Upload to Padlet + add 50–100 word rationale.

• Upload same image to Canvas.

• Set up your blog upload first post (self-portrait + rationale + research).

This approach challenges the conventions of the selfie, where the whole face is often polished and presented for validation. Instead, by zooming in so close, flaws disappear, and what remains is pure detail, texture, and colour. It becomes less about vanity and more about essence.

The use of double exposure creates a surreal, dreamlike quality. The clouds suggest impermanence, thought, or even the unconscious, linking the portrait to states of mind as much as physical appearance. This pushes against the stereotype of the selfie, which often aims for clarity, perfection, and control. Here, the ambiguity becomes the point: it leaves space for interpretation, inviting the viewer to question what lies hidden and what is revealed.

_{Stylistically, this opens up a possible direction for the whole project:}

• _{Double Exposure / Overlay: Blending my image with symbolic textures (clouds, water, stone, light) to explore different aspects of identity.}

• _{Obscured Portraits: Using hands, hair, fabric, or shadows to partially conceal the self, playing with visibility and invisibility.}

• _{Conceptual Self-Portraiture: Shifting away from likeness and moving towards metaphor, using the body as a canvas for ideas rather than just recognition.}

Vivian Maier has become one of the most fascinating figures in the history of photography, not only for the quality of her work but also for the mystery that surrounds her life and practice. Born in New York in 1926 to a French mother and Austrian father, she spent parts of her childhood in both the United States and France. For most of her adult life she worked as a nanny and governess, primarily in Chicago, yet she carried her Rolleiflex camera everywhere she went. At the time of her death in 2009 she was almost entirely unknown in the art world. Only when storage lockers containing thousands of her negatives were auctioned off did her work come to light, leading to her posthumous recognition as one of the great street photographers of the twentieth century.

Although Maier is usually celebrated for her candid street photography, her self-portraits are among the most revealing aspects of her practice. These images demonstrate her ability to weave herself into the everyday environment while maintaining a sense of distance and mystery. Unlike conventional self-portraits that present the face directly, Maier often used mirrors, shadows, and reflections as her means of including herself in the frame. This creates a subtle tension between presence and absence: she is undeniably there, yet hidden, distorted, or abstracted. In this way, her work takes on a more conceptual approach to identity, one that resists easy categorisation or self-promotion.

One striking example is Self-Portrait, New York, 1955, where Maier photographs her reflection in a shop window. The glass surface merges her image with the bustling street, passersby, and objects inside the shop, turning her face into just one fragment of a layered urban composition. Another notable work is Self-Portrait, 1954, in which her reflection appears warped in the curve of a car hubcap; a playful distortion that denies any fixed or authoritative self-image. She also frequently photographed her elongated shadow cast across pavements or walls. These shadow works reduce her presence to a silhouette, acknowledging her existence while simultaneously abstracting her into something transient and impersonal.

What is striking about Maier’s self-portraits is how closely they mirror aspects of her personal life. As a nanny, she lived within other people’s households, simultaneously present and peripheral, both caretaker and outsider. Her photographs seem to echo this condition for example she appears as a reflection in someone else’s mirror, a shadow cast across someone else’s space, or a figure fleetingly captured in glass. The self-portraits can therefore be read not only as exercises in composition but also as subtle meditations on invisibility, social marginality, and the quiet labour of women in mid-century America.

For contemporary photographers, Maier’s work is highly instructive. She demonstrates that a self-portrait does not need to rely on a direct depiction of the face or body. Instead, identity can be approached symbolically and indirectly through shadows, reflections, and environments. This resonates strongly with my own exploration of concealment and layering. Just as Maier found ways to embed herself into her surroundings without full disclosure, I am experimenting with obscuring my face behind my hands and layering textures such as clouds. Both approaches challenge the idea that a portrait must reveal a stable truth about the sitter, suggesting instead that identity is partial, fragmented, and always in negotiation.

References

• _{Bannos, P. (2017). Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife. University of Chicago Press.}

• _{Maloof, J. (2014). Vivian Maier: Street Photographer. PowerHouse Books.}

• _{Mulligan, T., & Wooters, M. (2017). Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits. PowerHouse Books.}

• _{Prose, F. (2014). “The Story of Vivian Maier.” The New York Review of Books.}